Fired healthcare professionals are awarded jobless benefits

Several fired healthcare professionals were recently awarded unemployment benefits by Iowa judges who found the workers had not committed workplace misconduct.

One of the cases involves Garmai Rogers, who worked for the nursing home chain WesleyLife from September 2024 through March 2026, when she was fired.

WesleyLife alleged that over a two-week period in July 2025, there had been at least 14 instances of Rogers failing to answer residents’ call lights in a timely fashion.

State records show that in January 2026, Rogers was disciplined by WesleyLife for allegedly throwing a phone and call light onto a resident’s chest out of frustration. WesleyLife then concluded Rogers had failed to treat residents, visitors, and coworkers in a professional and courteous manner and fired her.

After a subsequent hearing on Rogers’ application for unemployment benefits, Administrative Law Judge Michael Lunn found Rogers credibly testified the state had found insufficient evidence to substantiate any allegations of abuse against her.

Noting that WesleyLife failed to submit into evidence a March 2026 incident report that it said led to Rogers’ dismissal, Lunn ruled the company failed to meet its burden of proving Rogers engaged in workplace misconduct. Rogers was awarded unemployment benefits.

Other healthcare workers whose unemployment cases were recently decided include:

Theresa Simpson, who worked for Terrace Hill Healthcare as a certified nursing assistant from June 2025 through June 2026, when she was fired for alleged gross misconduct.

Terrace Hill alleged that during a resident council meeting on June 15, 2026, multiple complaints were lodged about Simpson either not helping residents or making derogatory statements about them. The company fired Simpson shortly after the meeting, citing both the number of prior complaints against her and the nature of the more recent complaints.

Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Johnson recently ruled Simpson was eligible for jobless benefits, finding that Terrace Hill had not established whether the complaints were found to have merit or were even investigated.

Heather Bartlett, who worked for Covenant Medical Center from 1991 until June 2026 when she was fired. During her last five years with the company, she was the nursing manager for acute in-patient rehabilitation at MercyOne hospital in Waterloo.

In the weeks leading up to her discharge, Bartlett had voiced concerns with a proposed change in the hospital’s dietary program that she believed had a disruptive impact on patient care. She also filed a complaint about her supervisor, alleging he created a hostile work environment through yelling, verbal abuse and the use of profanity. Prior to her dismissal, Bartlett had allegedly received positive performance reviews and high scores in patient-satisfaction surveys.

Administrative Law Judge James Timberland recently ruled Bartlett was fired for no reason that would disqualify her from collecting unemployment benefits. Covenant, he noted, had provided no evidence of workplace misconduct.

Chasity Kephart, who worked fulltime as a first-responder community health coach for Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital from May 2024 through April 2026, when she was fired.

According to state records, the hospital contracted with the City of Council Bluffs’ police and fire departments to provide first-responder health coach services, and Kephart was assigned to work for those departments for the duration of a two-year contract set to expire in June 2026.

On April 17, 2026, the city investigated an incident in which Kephart was alleged to have shared with others a photograph containing some sort of confidential information. Days later, the city notified the hospital, without explanation, that it was terminating the contract early and no longer needed Kephart’s services. The hospital then fired Kephart, citing the lack of available work for her, while challenging her subsequent application for unemployment benefits.

Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Adkisson ruled recently that there was no evidence to indicate Kephart had committed job-related misconduct and that she was entitled to jobless benefits.