Two nurses face jail time for reporting a doctor to the Texas Medical Board

There’s a disturbing case in Texas, involving two whistle-blowing nurses who reported a physician to the Texas Medical Board (TMB).

Apparently, they took offense at the physician who was peddling herbal medications in the emergency room, among other deeds. Unable to convince hospital administration to discipline him, they reported him to the Board.

And here’s where it gets disturbing.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/nurses-face-jail-time-reporting-doctor-texas-medical-board.html

This is awful.

A bad one.

From reading posts #7 and #8. They are investigating the doctor as they should be. If there's any justice the sheriff and the doctor will lose their jobs and perhaps their respective certifications.

It is time to take away oversite of doctors from doctors. Policing oneself never works. Time to set up a board of everyday people to do the overseeing.

saddened yes, but shocked? No, not really.

and of course it would be in Texas, where the good old bubbas protect the hell out of each other. I think that doctor is well connected through the bubba network.

That sheriff should be out of a job. That doctor should face some pretty severe discipline. Those nurses should be given medals.

Instead, they'll probably be railroaded all the way to jail, the sheriff will undoubtedly use the case as a springboard to the state lege, and the doctor will continue to peddle his bogus crap to sick people with impunity.

And you're right, no nurse will dare file a complaint, not even against surgeons who show up in the operating room blind drunk.

That's just the way they like it.

Nurses have a big stake at what occurs in any patient care area in which they work.

Anything medicinal must come from the hospital formulary, or procured by the pharmacy with/as a non-formulary prescription.

If the patient goes home with anything, it must be dispensed by a pharmacist with all the proper paperwork and labeling. This is to protect the patient and the hospital.

I don't know the Texas pharmacy laws, nor do I know the hospital's policy and procedures, but I'm willing to bet neither would be the side of the doctors. I do bet, though, the hospital is privately owned, and these doctors, shamefully have clout.

If a misadventure were to happen, the hospital would have passed the blame to the nurses for not reporting inappropriate behavior by the doctors. For these nurses, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Hopefully this will go to appeal. If I knew the name of the hospital, I would report them to an outside agency, myself. The hospital could easily lose their accreditation, insurance reimbursements, etc.

Inglis: Retaliation against West Texas nurses is unacceptable

Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit

In a stunning display of good ol' boy idiocy and abuse of prosecutorial discretion, two West Texas nurses have been fired from their jobs and indicted with a third-degree felony carrying potential penalties of two-to-ten years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of $10,000. Why? Because they exercised a basic tenet of the nurse's Code of Ethics — the duty to advocate for the health and safety of their patients.

The nurses, in their 50s and both members of the American Nurses Association/Texas Nurses Association, reported concerns about a doctor practicing at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit. They were unamused by his improperly encouraging patients in the hospital emergency department and in the rural health clinic to buy his own herbal "medicines," and they thought it improper for him to take hospital supplies to perform a procedure at a patient's home rather than in the hospital. (The doctor did not succeed, as reportedly he was stopped by the hospital chief of staff.)

The nurses went up their chain of command with their complaints. They got nowhere with their 25-bed rural hospital. So they anonymously turned the doctor into the Texas Medical Board using six medical record numbers of the involved hospital patients .

When the medical board notified the physician that he was under investigation for mistreatment and poor quality of care, he filed a harassment complaint with the Winkler County Sheriff's Department.

To find out who made the anonymous complaint, the sheriff left no stone unturned. He interviewed all of the patients whose medical record case numbers were listed in the report and 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 and used the description of a "female over 50" to narrow the potential complainants to the two nurses. He then got a search warrant to seize their work computers and found a copy of the letter to the medical board on one of them.

Charged by the county attorney's office with "misuse of official information," on July 15 a hearing in the Winkler County courthouse on motions to dismiss the nurses' case resulted in no rulings. In response, the nurses got widespread support.

The Texas Medical Board sent a letter to the attorneys stating that it is improper to criminally prosecute people for raising complaints with the board; that the complaints were confidential and not subject to subpoena; that the board is exempt from federal HIPAA law; and that, on the contrary, the board depends on reporting from health care professionals to carry out its duty of protecting the public from improper practitioners.

This situation shouldn't happen anywhere, but it especially shouldn't happen in Texas, which hassome of the toughest whistle-blower and patient advocacy protections for nurses in the nation, thanks to the leadership of Texas Nurses Association.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/08/03/0803inglis_edit.html

I don't think the TMB did anything wrong in this case unless I am missing something. It was the Sheriff who went wild.

I hope those nurses file suit against God and everybody.

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:uq3l_fgeK3IJ:www.casewatch.org/civil/mitchell/suit.pdf+Dr.+Rolando+Arafiles&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

here's a pdf http://www.casewatch.org/civil/mitchell/suit.pdf.

The nurses have more than 20 years each at this hospital. Their jobs was in quality management/compliance - which was what I use to do at a 1600-bed teaching hospital.

Other staff members (including doctors) made complaints. The cop is a patient of the doctor, and is in the herbal business with him.

Going back to read more ....

and I don't mean that as a slam at Texas. The GOB network is alive and well everywhere. I hope those nurses sue he bastard for all he's got. The cop also.

Good lord! Didn't the Sheriff violate the law in regard to HIPAA? Is he exempt?
The doctor should have never made those patients part of the process by giving the Sheriff the letter IMHO.

Somebody ought to be looking at them for a whole lotta things.

which is why they gave him a copy of the confidential report, along with a letter indicating such.

So the sheriff knew as soon as he got the report, he should and could not use it.

When the sheriff called on the nurses they willingly discussed their complaints with him because they believe he was investigating the doctor and the hospital. (The nurses also filed a complaint about the hospital committing fraud.) What he got was their admission to writing the complaint.

The county and district attorney were well aware of the laws protecting the nurses but they took it before the grand jury anyway. So was the sheriff, but he testified anyway.

The hospital terminated the nurses.

Now here's the kicker - sit down for this - the DA wrote a memo stating that they'd dismiss all charges if the nurses would agree they wouldn't file a civil action against the hospital, the county, any entities or employees!

So these ladies are suing them all.

Talk about stupidity and abuse of power! damn!

He got his answer in that lawsuit I guess.

Somebody should make t-shirts or bumperstickers that say "And your horse."

I hope those morans face criminal charges.

larn 'em. Good ol' boys, indeed!

The "doctor" should be stripped of his license to practice medicine, and the "sheriff" should be thrown out of office.

Obvious collusion and conflict of interest.

Hope those nurses own those two turkeys before all is said and done.

and that there is a strong connection between the crooked doctor and the crooked sheriff. That it's a business connection just puts the icing on the cake and they'll both not only be out of business soon, they'll be wearing barrels when they dumpster dive for dinner.

The hospital will likely be looking for a few new administrators soon, too.

what he's accusing the nurses of. He is the one who used private medical information for the purpose of harrassment.

they should win if there is justice.