Do you have employees who are easily distracted, restless, disorganized and forgetful? Maybe that’s just who they are—or maybe they’ve been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It’s pretty common. About 8 million American adults suffer from it. It’s an “invisible” disability, but one court recently said employers shouldn’t be so fast to discount it. A disability is a disability … whether you can see it or not.

Case In Point: Dr. Robert Lewis was hired by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to work in the emergency room. After about four years, he told the emergency-room chief doctor that he thought he had ADHD. He asked to be accommodated by seeing only one patient at a time. Plus, he wanted to be able to fill out patients' medical charts in one batch after seeing all the patients for the day. 

The chief denied his request and formally put Lewis on probation because he was “impaired and distractible.” Lewis was also required to undergo a psychological evaluation. Subsequently, Lewis was diagnosed with ADHD.

The hospital asked his treating doctor to provide “as much information as possible.” Lewis's doctor said confidentiality requirements prohibited him from providing “as much information as possible” but he offered to respond to specific questions. The hospital never followed up.

Shortly thereafter, the hospital suspended Lewis for allegedly failing to provide a letter from his psychologist about his ADHD diagnosis, failing to park in the doctors' parking lot and having unsigned paperwork for more than 30 days. Eventually, Lewis was terminated.

Lewis sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), saying the hospital had a duty to accommodate his ADHD behavior. The hospital argued that it could legally fire Lewis for failing to provide complete medical documentation about this ADHD status. (Lewis v. UPMC Bedford, W.D. Pa., 3/30/09).

What happened next … and what lessons can be learned?

The court sided with Lewis and sent the case to a jury to decide, saying Lewis showed enough evidence that the hospital regarded him as disabled and fired him because of his ADHD.

The judge rejected the hospital’s defense that it fired Lewis because he didn’t provide enough medical info. The court said, “Disabled employees, especially those with psychiatric disabilities, may have good reasons for not wanting to reveal … every detail of their medical records because much of the information may be irrelevant to identifying and justifying accommodations, could be embarrassing, and might actually exacerbate workplace prejudice.”

3 Lessons Learned …Without Going to Court

1. Dump the microscope. Never put an employee under the performance microscope after he or she exercises a legal right. The court in this case noted that Lewis was being singled out for a psychiatric evaluation that others did not have to undergo and that was unfair.

2. Don’t play doctor.  The chief doctor of the emergency room was trying to second guess the doctor’s diagnosis of ADHD, so he followed Lewis around on patient rounds looking for symptoms. Even if you are a doctor, don’t play doctor. Just get a doctor’s note.

3. Say, “Ah!” Or, better yet, say “thank you” when an employee gives you a doctor’s note about their disability. Then engage in the interactive process with the employee and consider reasonable accommodations. Otherwise, you just might need a painkiller when the jury comes back with a verdict against you.