Shabazz

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background In 2014, the hospital hired Shabazz as an emergency department medical technician. During his orientation, he acknowledged receipt of the hospital’s written policies, including its drug and alcohol policies. The incident giving rise to this action occurred four years later, on December 12, 2018. On that day, Shabazz was working in the emergency department as were Nurse Evgeniya Krol and others. At some point during her shift, Krol notified the Charge Nurse that a vial of morphine “had gone missing from a Workstation on Wheels (‘WOW’)” in the emergency department. Janeanne Morgan, the Director of Emergency Services at the hospital, and Elizabeth Reid, the Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at the hospital, “immediately commenced an initial investigation.” They stated in declarations supporting the motion for summary judgment that based on their initial investigation, they “understood” that other than Krol, Shabazz was “the only person near the WOW and within arm’s reach of the morphine when it disappeared.” They also stated it “did not seem plausible” to them that Krol “would report suspected diversion of the missing morphine if she had taken it…