A federal judge last month permitted a former anesthesiologist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Colorado to proceed with some of her employment discrimination claims, even though a different judge previously found the VA was justified in removing her.

Elizabeth Schacht worked for the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora between 2015 and 2018. She alleged her ultimate removal from federal service resulted from discrimination on the basis of her sex, her pregnancy status and her national origin. 

In a Feb. 29 order, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer concluded some of her claims were not viable. Schacht had not, for instance, credibly alleged she was subjected to a hostile work environment. However, Brimmer did believe Schacht’s allegations illustrated the VA treated at least one similarly situated male doctor more favorably following his own unprofessional conduct than it treated Schacht for hers.

Further, the VA suspended Schacht’s clinical privileges the same day she filed a formal discrimination complaint with the department.

“A temporal connection of less than a day strongly supports inferring a causal connection between the protected activity and materially adverse action,” Brimmer wrote.

In her telling, Schacht, who is originally from Colombia, was the only female anesthesiologist during her employment in Aurora. She raised concerns about discrimination in 2017, prompting VA officials to solicit negative comments about her.

In early 2018, Schacht disclosed she was experiencing a high-risk pregnancy and asked for accommodations. Shortly afterward, on Feb. 14, she formally filed a discrimination complaint. That same day, the VA suspended her clinical privileges through a letter that claimed she potentially posed “an imminent threat to patient welfare.”

Subsequently, the medical center director sustained five out of eight misconduct allegations against Schacht, including improper patient evaluation and assessment, unprofessional communication, and being distracted by a cell phone conversation during a patient procedure. The VA removed Schacht from federal service and an appeals board later upheld that decision.

Schacht filed suit against the VA, alleging she experienced discrimination based on her sex, national origin and pregnancy status. She also claimed the VA retaliated against her for lodging complaints of workplace discrimination and she pointed to male doctors whose own alleged misconduct did not end their employment.

Even if Schacht did act unprofessionally, “the evidence clearly demonstrates that she received much more severe discipline for conduct that was significantly less egregious than that of her male, U.S. born physician peers who, unlike her, were not pregnant, did not experience pregnancy complications, have any other known disabilities or file one or more (discrimination) complaints,” wrote Schacht’s attorneys.

Prior to filing suit in Colorado’s federal trial court, Schacht attempted to appeal her termination in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Proceeding anonymously as “Jane Doe, M.D.,” a judge concluded the evidence supported the VA’s findings of Schacht’s unprofessional conduct.

“There was extensive evidence in the record that her conduct put patients at risk and created a difficult work environment for her colleagues,” wrote District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper in 2022. “Faulting Doe for failing to meet these baseline standards was eminently reasonable.”

The government, in seeking to dismiss Schacht’s Colorado lawsuit, asked Brimmer to take note of Cooper’s conclusion. Brimmer declined, explaining he could not rely on the facts in another judge’s decision when addressing a motion to dismiss.

Based on her allegations, Brimmer determined Schacht credibly claimed the initial suspension of her clinical privileges and subsequent removal from federal service were retaliatory, based on the proximity to her discrimination complaints. Further, the VA suspended Schacht’s privileges only one month after she disclosed a need for pregnancy-related accommodations.

“As a result, the Court finds that Dr. Schacht has plausibly alleged her discrimination claim,” he wrote.

In a separate order issued the same day, Brimmer granted summary judgement in favor of the VA on certain portions of Schacht’s claims because she had not fully pursued discrimination charges administratively prior to filing suit.

The case is Schacht v. McDonough.