Nurses Fired & Face Charges
Re-printed with permission. Original post July 22, 2009 at A Nurse Attorneys Thoughts. Find more at her new blogsite! - Health License Defense.
The following post is in regards to an on-going case in Texas that involves two Registered Nurses, a Physician, the hospital where they all practiced, the law and the Texas Board of Medicine. Background information can be found here:
AP News – TX Nurses Face Charges after Filing Complaint
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See Previous: Nurses Indicted
Additional Information about the Fired Nurses
This information was received from the Texas Nurses Association (where a legal defense fund has been set up): “A brief summary of the facts is:
1. Vicki and Anne had concerns about whether a physician was practicing at an acceptable standard of care. They tried to raise those concerns at the facility level and with medical staff but got nowhere.
2. They were accused of anonymously reporting the physician to Texas Medical Board (TMB). That report included the medical record case numbers of six patients but no patient names. They did not sign the letter, stating they feared for their jobs, but that they would speak with an investigator at the appropriate time if an investigation by TMB was determined to be warranted. In the report, one of the nurses described herself as being a female over 50 years old and employed at the facility since the 1980s, etc.
3. The hospital apparently has a policy of “Self-Review” which prohibits the reporting of any concerns to any Board/Agency without the hospital being notified of the intent to report.
4. When the TMB notified the physician that a complaint had been filed against him, the physician filed a complaint for harassment with the county sheriff’s department against the unknown persons making the report.
5. The sheriff interviewed all of the patients whose medical record case numbers were listed in the report. Apparently, either TMB or the sheriff used the case numbers to obtain the patients’ names from the hospital to determine who filed the complaint. The sheriff also asked the hospital to identify who would have had access to the patient records in question. At some point, the sheriff obtained a copy of the anonymous complaint from TMB and used the description of a female over 50 to narrow the potential complainants to Vicki and Anne. He then got a search warrant to seize their work computers and found a copy of the letter to TMB on one of them.
6. The nurses have been indicted and arrested under Texas Penal Code Sec. 39.06 for misuse of official information a, third degree felony, which carries potential penalties of two-to-ten years’ imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine.
7. Both had to retain legal counsel and post a $5,000 bond to defend these criminal charges.
8. Both have been fired by the hospital.”
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Read Previous Muse, RN Articles Regarding Winkler RNs:
RN’s Indicted: Misuse of Official Information
See Next: Winkler County RN Update (#1)
