17 February 2010

Texas Hold ‘Em

If you think that nurse whistleblowers have a hard time here in Australia or UK, spare a thought for nurse Anne Mitchell in Texas.  Only this week a court found her and fellow nurse Vicki Galle not guilty of felony charges that could have seen her jailed for 10 years and fined $10,000.

Anne had written to the State Medical Board with concerns about a doctor at her hospital, having tried the ‘normal channels’.  In her letter she cited the specific patient profile numbers (but not names).  Even the Texas Medical Board condemned the prosecution, saying that it could have "a significant chilling effect" on the reporting of malpractice.

The ‘good ole boys’ network saw the case pursued by the Sheriff who was a “friend and admirer” of the doctor concerned and prosecuted by the doctor’s personal lawyer.  So no conflicts of interest there then.

All of this is bad enough, but what has evaded scrutiny so far seems to be the actions of the hospital administration where the two nurses had worked for a combined 47 years..  They were of course “fired from their positions”.

There are no prizes for guessing whether the doctor concerned was also fired.

Ask yourself what would happen if this had occurred at your hospital or organisation.

This has become something of a landmark case in the US and nursing organisations ere celebrating the victory for nurse advocacy.  Let’s hope that the nurses’ counter suit case for violation of first amendment rights and due process is spectacularly successful.

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