LIHU‘E — A former nurse with Hawai‘i Air Ambulance has accused her former supervisors of sexual harassment, but the company “emphatically denies” the claims. Suzanne Masias, now living in Colorado, was an obstetrics nurse at Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital at
LIHU‘E — A former nurse with Hawai‘i Air Ambulance has accused her former supervisors of sexual harassment, but the company “emphatically denies” the claims.
Suzanne Masias, now living in Colorado, was an obstetrics nurse at Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital at the West Kaua‘i Medical Center in Waimea before deciding to leave that position to join Hawai‘i Air Ambulance.
She said soon after she started with the company unsolicited, risqué text messages started arriving from Jonathan Sneed, chief field training officer, who trains new hires.
Matt Jenkins, who has been promoted from Kaua‘i manager to chief flight nurse, allegedly refused to train Masias, would not share patient information on cases Jenkins and Masias worked on together, and called obstetrics nurses “monkeys,” she said.
Jenkins said he did not wish to comment for the purposes of this story.
Sneed, when reached on his cell phone, asked for specific information on the reporter and newspaper, then hung up without making comment.
Joe Hunt, co-owner of Hawai‘i Air Ambulance’s parent company Eagle Air, out of Salt Lake City, Utah, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Cheryl Bowers, Eagle Air vice president, initially asked where The Garden Island had received information on a confidential investigation and threatened legal action if the newspaper published a story. Then later Wednesday evening she sent a statement via fax.
“Hawai‘i Air Ambulance emphatically denies any unlawful conduct or wrongdoing toward Ms. Masias. It saddens us that in our opinion, this claim made against us is in an effort to get money from the company,” the statement, signed by Bowers, says.
Dawn Guillermo, program director for Hawai‘i Air Ambulance, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
“I am a local woman and I manage the entire program in Hawai‘i. I have never witnessed any type of discrimination or harassment against any employee nor would we tolerate this type of behavior,” Guillermo said in the HAA statement sent by fax. “We take seriously our legal obligations to provide harassment training and educate our employees by maintaining appropriate policies against discrimination.”
Hawai‘i Air Ambulance maintains one air ambulance and crew on Kaua‘i, according to the company Web site.
What Masias envisioned as a thrilling career of practicing nursing while helping keep patients alive who were being shuttled between islands in Hawai‘i with serious injuries, she said, quickly turned into a nightmare.
“My life was greatly impacted by the actions of these two men,” Masias said of Sneed and Jenkins.
“My self-esteem has been greatly affected,” she said, adding that a mediation teleconference is scheduled for today after the Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission determined there was enough information to file a formal complaint.
Masias said she immediately reported to her supervisors the conduct of Sneed and Jenkins, and saved the offensive text messages, which she had transcribed and notarized as evidence in her case.
She said company officials dismissed her claims, although Masias said Guillermo at a staff meeting said the company won’t tolerate the behavior of Jenkins.
Masias said Sneed said he thought the text-message banter was mutual.
She said she left the company early, that she didn’t feel safe or adequately trained, and felt she might be exposed to liability if something bad happened to a patient under her care.
Masias said Jenkins put her and patients at risk by refusing to train her and share patient information with her, while he routinely shared such information with male nurses employed by the company.
She said she is making her claims public in hopes others who experienced the same treatment might also come forward. Masias said others who are or had been in her position either left the company or are still working for Hawai‘i Air Ambulance, experienced the same treatment she felt, but are afraid to come forward.
“The truth should be the truth,” said Masias, who turned down a supervisory position at KVMH to take the Hawai‘i Air Ambulance job.
She said she wants the company to change its practices.
“HAA has to start by explaining why they have done nothing to fix the pattern of harassment and discrimination,” said Masias, 35, a former Lawa‘i resident who has now gone back to school to pursue a graduate degree in anesthesiology.
She worked 15 years as a nurse. Company management replaced her while she was on maternity leave, she said.
Leslie Lam, director of marketing for Hawai‘i Air Ambulance, said in a statement that “I have never at any time witnessed any discriminatory or harassing behavior towards any employee.”
“Hawai‘i Air Ambulance is driven by excellent patient care and safety and we care greatly about our employees and the people we serve,” Lam said. “We have a medical team based on Kaua‘i and have flown many patients and saved many lives in this community.”
William Hoshijo is executive director of the Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission, which falls administratively under the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
Hoshijo said confidentiality rules prohibit him from talking about specific cases, so he spoke generally about the process by which the commission determines whether or not complaints have merit.
First, the commission is charged with enforcing state laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. The fact that the mediation teleconference is set for today means a commission formal complaint has been filed, though it might have been filed before commission investigators had time to investigate the case, and even before the company has had a chance to file a written response to the complaint, Hoshijo said.
If today’s mediation is taking place before the commission investigation, the commission is not a party to the proceeding. Once mediation is chosen, any ongoing commission investigation stops, he said.
The investigation ensues if mediation fails. After the investigation, the commission makes a determination if unlawful discrimination has taken place, and if Hoshijo determines such discrimination has taken place, the state becomes a party to the action.
The commission routinely recommends settling cases through mediation, which may be entered into at various stages of the proceedings. Mediation might appeal to companies because it allows terms of the settlement to remain confidential, he said.
If mediation fails, the case might go to an administrative hearing or trial, with the losing party having the right to take the case to a state circuit court, at which point it would become a public proceeding.
Most cases taken up by the commission are resolved before going to court, he said.
The entire commission process can take as little as 60 days, said Hoshijo.
On the Net: Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission, hawaii.gov/labor/hcrc; Hawai‘i Air Ambulance, www.hiairamb.com.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
