A Whatcom (Wash.) County judge has dismissed a physician’s lawsuit against the staffing firm he was formerly employed by, Cascadia Daily reported March 25.
In 2020, Ming Lin, MD, a former emergency room physician at Bellingham, Wash.-based PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, was removedfrom his position of 17 years after he publicly claimed the hospital lacked protective measures against COVID-19 and advocated for more staff protections. In a tweet, the system contended it had not fired Dr. Lin and would work to find him a position at a different hospital.
After settling another lawsuit in January 2025 with PeaceHealth, which denied wrongdoing, Dr. Lin amended his lawsuit to focus on claims of retaliation and discrimination against Knoxville, Tenn.-based TeamHealth, a physician staffing firm, and its local subsidiary, Northwest Emergency Physicians.
He claimed that he was discriminated against and dismissed based on his race, as well as for speaking out about safety concerns. At one point, Dr. Lin was the only Asian-American physician at St. Joseph’s, and submitted multiple complaints regarding alleged discrimination and safety concerns in the years preceding the pandemic, the news outlet said.
Dr. Lin has appealed the court’s March 6 dismissal and told the Daily that he was disappointed by the ruling but will continue to pursue his case, saying that he still “has faith in the justice system,” according to the report.
The judge, David Freeman, told the Daily that “the court has considered, and reconsidered countless times the parties’ evidence and arguments (The Court regrets and apologizes for its delay in reaching its decision).”
Jason Fellner, Dr. Lin’s attorney, told the outlet that the dismissal of Dr. Lin’s claims against Northwest Emergency Physicians came as a surprise in the nearly six-year-old case. Mr. Freeman said that Dr. Lin has “taken liberty with the advancement of certain facts, i.e., his characterization of ‘similarly-suited employees’ and ‘anti-Asian sentiment.’ For all of these reasons, the Court is declining to provide a more detailed explanation of its ruling.”
In a statement shared with Becker’s, a spokesperson from TeamHealth said that “the court’s dismissal of all his claims was appropriate under the law and completely vindicates TeamHealth.”
The statement also noted that TeamHealth is confident that the ruling will be affirmed if appealed.
“TeamHealth supports its entire clinical workforce, ensuring each clinician has the resources needed to deliver exceptional patient care at its partner hospitals and facilities,” the statement read.
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