[SallyRNCNOR]

Dear TNN:
My thoughts and wishes are with you. What a terrible way to treat a long term dedicated employee. You didn't mention if your facility was represented by a union. If so you cannot be fired without probable cause. You have no other write-ups in your file to prove that you have been anything other than an exemplary employee. I would suggest that you speak to your union rep before making any decisions.
If you are not represented by a union, may I suggest that you do contact a lawyer and give him all the pertinent information. If you have either documentation, or corroborative evidence that this other nurse has been behaving unsafely, I don't think that the hospital would be willing to undergo the public scrutiny of a trial.
I don't know what state that you are from, but I don't think it would hurt to find out your state laws regarding whistleblowing. If you have participated in any political campaigns or if you are on friendly terms with your local legislator, it wouldn't be a bad idea to speak to him/her and get them in your corner. If you have any physicians that are willing to speak in your behalf, or have witnessed any of the unsafe behavior by this employee, now would be a good time to have them speak to the hospital administrator. Your hospital administrator is responsible to the local community, and it would be difficult to explain why a unsafe employee is allowed to continue in a critical care area.

[TNNURSE]

Originally Posted by TsunamiKim

TNTURSE,

Sorry you had to experience that. I just endured another blow yesterday in my ongoing battle against my former Hospital. I want to share it with you here to warn you of another major pitfall that lies ahead of you. A few years ago Hospitals, like many employers throughout the US, were encouraged to create internal Compliance Lines to enable their employees to report negligence and fraud though a safe and confidential internal channel. It seems that the main reason Government got behind this was to weed out fraud, like Medicare fraud, that squandered public money. This undertaking was not embraced by Hospitals for altruistic reasons to insure better, safer patient care and genuinely uncover wrongdoing so that it could be rectified, it was purely economic. If a business had one of these Compliance Lines in place and a public agency did charge them with negligence or fraud they could help to limit the financial damage in fines. This was based on the premise that they had acted in good faith to insure that they were doing everything within their power to prevent such goings on at their Hospital or business.
However in the true spirit of maintaining the status quo on profiteering and corrupt practices it did not take long for the American business world to find a way round this. These Compliance Lines are now used to weed out those “trouble maker” whistleblowers and do a swift cover up job with the necessary damage control to secure their own interests and insure that their reputation remained untarnished. I was told by someone knowledgeable connected to one of the whistleblower organizations that they had a written warning on their web site to inform people of this potential corruption, but I haven’t found that web page yet. The point is be warned, as my own experience certainly bears out this information. DO NOT TRUST OR ATTEMPT TO CONTACT A COMPLIANCE LINE AS THEY ARE PROBABLY 100% CORRUPT!
They say that if you inform them of negligent unsafe practices or fraud they will do a very thorough internal investigation to correct the problem you have bought to their attention: not! They also say that they will protect you from retaliation for informing on these issues so that your job is not in danger: definitely, emphatically not! You will never receive anything from them in writing, zero paper trail. My former Hospital calls this “transparency,” they even won a fancy award for their “transparency.” America’s best Hospital supposedly wrote the book on patient safety; they also came up with an award winning implementation program for quality care that they are marketing to other Hospitals as they preach the gospel of honesty, integrity and transparency. Meanwhile they still rely on their Compliance Line to protect dirty little secrets from the past leaking into the public domain or being accessed by public agencies who might expect real accountability.
They will tell you that they cannot investigate your allegation of retaliation until you have gone through the entire HR process and every other avenue of recourse first. Basically they cannot protect you from retaliation until you have completely finished enduring the very worst excesses of that retaliation; surely that makes sense right? In other words they are committed to protecting their corrupt Hospital’s right to continue unrelenting retaliation until they have completely removed all trace of your existence from within their system. These ongoing acts of serious retaliation, include Managers lying under oath at hearings unimpeded and new “charges” inserted into your personnel file that you have zero access to and they can continuously tamper with at their leisure and with impunity. By doing this they can show their heavily doctored “evidence” to public agencies like EEOC behind your back to convince them you were legitimately fired for cause; since you have no access you cannot refute any of it. Now that’s really cunning and audacious. All of these corrupt practices go completely unmonitored and unhindered by this “Compliance Line” while the Hospital stalls for time to avoid accountability; it all takes a very long time.
In my case they were unable or unwilling to show just cause for firing me to Maryland unemployment compensation to block my eligibility. Perhaps they were more cautious about lying to deliberately defraud me out of unemployment payments because they risked criminal prosecution. “If employers provide false information for the purpose of disqualifying a claimant, they may be subject to criminal, as well as civil, penalties.” This pertains to the state of Maryland, but it may well be applicable in your state too. How about you TNNURSE? Did they attempt to block you from obtaining unemployment compensation by showing scrambled, wrong day documentation of the minor technicality they used to justify your removal?
This was the only agency that my former Hospital perhaps chose not to misrepresent and lie to about the reason for my termination. EEOC, the Maryland Commission on Human Relations and the Board of Nursing were all shown documents that I was expressly prohibited from seeing. This is obviously a rather warped example of the Hospital’s concept of “transparency.” In contrast I willingly supplied an official signed waiver to enable the Board of Nursing unrestricted access to my employee files and even my short distance phone record. That was my definition of transparency! However I was sickened when the Board of Nursing continued to protect the interests of the Hospital by prohibiting my access to my own files and the fake charges against me. I have to say as an English person I am simply stunned by this American interpretation of due process, justice and fair play.
With careful maneuvering and deliberate stalling tactics this painful process of stalling may drag out for several years, but as a naive idiot you actually believe that if all else fails you can insist that they investigate: not! Once they have allowed the corrupt HR process to complete the job of removing you from the system then you are no longer an employee and they do not have to bother investigating weather the retaliation used to remove you was legitimate or not. Clever isn’t it? That was the little gem that they dropped on me yesterday. They let me know that I had no right to justice because they had successfully “retaliated” me out of your right to an investigation of that retaliation! They will probably refuse your calls because they do not even have the guts to tell you they lied and tricked you into sabotaging your own recourse to protection. It is simple really: THERE IS NO RECOURSE TO PROTECTION.
If you try to separate the negligence issues that originally prompted retaliation against you from the act of them firing you for coming forward, they will resist. My Hospital wanted to continue risking patient’s lives for another three years until my last recourse was exhausted; that made good business sense to them. However, even if they pretend they are actually doing an investigation it is likely to be a total farce. This is when they return to agenda number one: covering their tracks and making the real negligence issue go away. Remember, most of the Hospital negligence issues are financially motivated and skimming the big bucks cannot be disrupted by some pesky whistleblower! There are ways to get round everything and justify that negligence, the perennial “Nursing Crisis” is a good old standby.
This thorough “investigation” never produces any tangible result that might be shared with you. There is no plan for resolving the problems you raised, no course of action they agree to take, just a pathetic, totally incomprehensible, verbal excuse given to you to fob you off if you pester them with calls. Verbally over the phone I was told that they had discovered there was some truth to my allegations, but they had decided to “just keep an eye on things.” The total absence of documentation and zero written response is the clearest hallmark of a truly corrupt Compliance Line “investigation.” If they did act on your concerns and there was genuine “transparency” there would be something to show for it following a “thorough investigation” so why can’t they openly share their plan for correcting the negligence with you? Simple they can’t because they intend to do nothing as that would require tangible consequences like disciplining Managers, it would need actual accountability and it might shut down the gravy train of easy cash from deliberately depleting staffing resources to maximize profits.
In all probability the Hospital Management are secretly very grateful to you for alerting them to corrupt practices that they will need to obscure far more carefully in the future. Because of your conscientious reporting they can create a back up plan to justify their negligent actions to any authorities who might come snooping. In some cases wronged employees are totally fooled by this inaction, they give up and disappear into obscurity. They are convinced that corrective measures were taken even when there is nothing to demonstrate this. They feel that they have done their duty to protect patients from harm. So called “risk Management” functions this way too; the bottom line is you cannot trust the fox to guard the hen house! Never trust anyone who says: “trust me!” If you listen to an internal, self interest group like “risk Management” or a Compliance Line when they say “everything is OK” you have been duped.
If you now go to external accreditation agencies the Hospital has been forewarned of what they need to cover up to deceive these groups. Their ignoring of the retaliation that removed you acts in their favor too: they can sabotage your credibility by portraying you as a “disgruntled former employee seeking revenge.” Even if you do manage to prompt a full external investigation from a public agency and they are found guilty of negligence or fraud the existence of that bogus Compliance Line will help to modify any fines they might be expected to pay. It will be used to demonstrate their corporate integrity and transparency in dealing with complaints and allegations raised by their employees. Now you can understand how setting up a Compliance Line is a win, win situation for corrupt businesses.
Yesterday I had my call back to the so called “independent” Compliance Line company who were overseeing the handling of the case I tried, one more time, to reopen. The “independent” Chief Compliance Line Investigator that I had originally dealt with at the Hospital was recently transferred to another cushy Managerial promotion at one of their affiliate Hospitals; how independent is that? He was the person who originally set up their Compliance Line and was undoubtedly a long time, well trusted Hospital functionary. He created a terrific program to cover up their negligence and fraud and it certainly looks like the Hospital has rewarded him well with his new post. There was no written reply from him or anyone else, after all how do you put: “we don’t Comply, we do not protect employees from retaliation, so we just lied to make you go away” in writing?
The extent and sheer audacity of their con trick nauseates me when I read about their sanctimonious preaching with regard to patient safety, quality care, honesty, integrity and transparency: it is just so incredibly hypocritical I want to puke. It is the scope of this deception at this untouchable, iconic institution that makes me so determined to expose the truth. I owe it to the patients and I must do it to try and force the Hospital to put proper whistleblower protections in place so that employees are no longer intimidated into silence. You have already seen how quickly “amnesia” set in after your colleges realize the consequences of speaking up; for me that was a really painful experience of loosing most of my former friends. Please do not give up, your patients and those fellow employees need you to be strong and expose this negligence. But do not let them stall for time and: DO NOT TRUST A COMPLIANCE LINE OR RISK MANAGEMENT. The fox cannot be trusted to guard the hen house! Hang in there and stay strong,

Fair Winds and Following Seas, Kim.

[b]Hmmm......ok......very interesting.I kinda feel like this....I have spoken to a great many of my former coworkers .....and there are a few that might get amnesia.....but there are many who will not.. and will be very open...if they ask.I went to this meeting last week....and as I said.....it appeared that 1 of the 2 parties was actively listening.So...even though I am getting more cynical by the day TsunamiKim...I have to wait on their results from this internal investigation. Did I get to tell them "ALL" that I felt they needed to know? No...No I didnt.I didnt. I am in a position of having to really wait on their results now.What I would love to be able to come back and say is that this employer did do the right thing.After all the negative stuff/info/stories I have heard...Id love to be able to come back and put that post on here. I should know in the next day/so. Like I said...its hard to dispute when you have audiotapes of them actually lying and admitting they altered MRs.Its sad really....and I mean that.It is sad. Sad or not...it still doesnt change the facts...what happened to me was very much unethical and against the law.I have copies of my evals, my work record, letters for promotion etc etc etc. So..even though I didnt get to give them all the info I wanted to or explain as much as I wanted....I will just have to wait and see what their next move is.
They have 2 choices ..
1.One- stand behind that NM and be prepared to stand in front of a Judge/Jury and choose which lie they want to go with...and admit that they either lied in their documentation or lied on the audiotapes.Its a slippery slope that anybody can see.
2.Stand behind their compliance policy and be a HC facility that truly does want to ensure pt safety...get rid of that NM and that Nurse and it will make a statement to their employees that they expect honesty,accountability, and top quality performance from them.Which results in better /safer patient care and lowered riskmanagement "RISKS" So...the saga continues.
TsunamiKim,
My heart breaks for you.I didnt apply for unemployment.I got multiple job offers the first day I applied. What excuse did your Compliance Officer give for his decision?I mean...I am definitely "new" to this ......but most Compliance statements are pretty clear cut from what I have read . I want to know...to hear your story.What was the basis for your risk managements and compliance officers decisions? Lack of substansiating evidence.....what exactly did they cite?B]

[bluestar]

I would think the incompetency issues should be reported to your state board of nursing, then I'd seriously pursue a good attorney. Sounds like you got the shaft.

[MNlpn]

Thats the trouble with administration now days, they think we are all just disposables. YOU GO GURL... I hope you get back everything AND more!

[MNlpn]

Originally Posted by panhandler

OMG OMG OMG
What I am seeing here is the tip of the iceberg.
Here's what we know:
1)The "nursing shortage" is a manufactured lie.
2)Experienced, innovative nurses are ground to a pulp by the system, ON PURPOSE.
3)There is WAGE-FIXING rampant in the healthcare industry for RN's.
4)The Nurses Associations have been de-clawed, de-fanged and de-balled. There is no effective representation for nurses.
5)Retaliation is broad throughout the health care industry when it comes to quality improvement initiatives, and any action designed to adjust patient ratios to reflect safe staffing.
6)There is no nation-wide pension plan specifically for nurses; there is no nation-wide health coverage for nurses; there simply is "no money": no money for nursing educators, nursing programs, nursing legal issues, and nursing rights. There isn't even any g/d representative of the profession for our funerals when we die.

Who's got the cujones to take on this outrageous problem?

And people say I should become and RN??? Why oh why???

[panhandler]

Why should you become an R.N.? some factoids:
.Only 60% of registered nurses are employed in acute care hospitals.
.Nurses in the profession are viewed as trustworthy, according to public opinion poles.
.YOu have to be an RN to open a nursing home so you can nuzzle up to the Federal Teat.

[gauge14iv]

Originally Posted by panhandler

Why should you become an R.N.? some factoids:
.Only 60% of registered nurses are employed in acute care hospitals.
.Nurses in the profession are viewed as trustworthy, according to public opinion poles.
.YOu have to be an RN to open a nursing home so you can nuzzle up to the Federal Teat.

And what did that have to do with the price of rice in Sumatra?

[panhandler]

Golly gee, guage14, I thought MNi wanted to know why she SHOULD become an RN.

[TNNURSE]

Originally Posted by SallyRNCNOR

Dear TNN:
My thoughts and wishes are with you. What a terrible way to treat a long term dedicated employee. You didn't mention if your facility was represented by a union. If so you cannot be fired without probable cause. You have no other write-ups in your file to prove that you have been anything other than an exemplary employee. I would suggest that you speak to your union rep before making any decisions.
If you are not represented by a union, may I suggest that you do contact a lawyer and give him all the pertinent information. If you have either documentation, or corroborative evidence that this other nurse has been behaving unsafely, I don't think that the hospital would be willing to undergo the public scrutiny of a trial.
I don't know what state that you are from, but I don't think it would hurt to find out your state laws regarding whistleblowing. If you have participated in any political campaigns or if you are on friendly terms with your local legislator, it wouldn't be a bad idea to speak to him/her and get them in your corner. If you have any physicians that are willing to speak in your behalf, or have witnessed any of the unsafe behavior by this employee, now would be a good time to have them speak to the hospital administrator. Your hospital administrator is responsible to the local community, and it would be difficult to explain why a unsafe employee is allowed to continue in a critical care area.

Sally....no such luck.I am in the south.In my state we have no union.This "nurse" has such a brash.."in your face" "argumentative" personality that most people avoid her.I have witnessed screaming matches between herself and physicians...and often times it is over topics or events that she hasnt had all the information she needs to intelligently "take a position" opposed or for the physician.Most people just avoid her really.Then ....part of me kinda feels sorry for her.She must have felt really desperate to do what she did.So ..on that aspect...my heart breaks for her.But it doesnt change the facts.Could I ever trust her or this Nm again? H*** no!Can that facility trust them?no.If that HC facility does nothing in my case...then they have inadvertently given them permission to do "ANYTHING" they want right or wrong...and their risk management can not complain when they pick up the tab...bc....by not acting they "gave them permission".
And as you said"it would be difficult for that employer to explain to the public(judge/jury)../.....you are right.It will be difficult.It will be impossible.Too many slippery slopes.It goes back to that old saying "oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we pratice to decieve".I think I must have "sucker" stamped on my forehead and A**. I swear....this whole thing has me still shaking my head.I never knew what hit me. I do have numerous legal options available even though we have no union.Right now...I am awaiting the results of their internal investigation....which....you guys are probably right is a sham.I have been bit once ya know.Bite me once-shame on you,.. Bite me twice-shame on me.I actually spent more time at this "INTERNAL" investigation meeting answering questions on my actions than I did her actions. Unlike her....all my actions were guided by their policies and by laws.So,,,....I wait for their results.
Guage14...you guys are too bad!!!!lol

[TsunamiKim]

TNNURSE,

Right, I knew that would happen. They always try to focus on you to avoid the real negligence. When I first had problems getting dumped on and left in rooms until I nearly passed out I documented the events and passed it to my Nurse Manager. I would also write up important things like how the support staff needed to stock the trauma area better for the weekend, how we should have a dedicated case cart ready for trauma as a matter of routine preparedness like every other civilized OR in the country! We just kind of scrambled for equipment to go into a trauma room at the last ditch. These issues did not target any specific individual or group and although the abandonment in rooms was symptomatic of chronic understaffing, I only ever wrote a complaint if I was left for over eight hours for absolutely no reason what-so-ever, as this one abusive Nurse Manager did. I once alerted them to an overflowing trash dumpster left in a hallway spilling infectious waste onto a C-arm that might subsequently make its way into an Ortho case where we were preparing to put in an implant; a case particularly vulnerable to infection.
In every scenario instead of valuing my input and stating how the problem would be dealt with I would get a very defensive written reply that accused me of “causing a scene,” “rude” “loud” you name it whatever lie was needed to make me “the problem” go away. The dumpsters in the hallway issue was a major ongoing problem and repeated violation of JCAHO regulations that my Hospital routinely ignored for years. When JCAHO made their scheduled visit the place was transformed to deliberately con them into thinking we were in compliance. Now if employees were asked about this under oath in court several hundred OR staff would have to decide whether to risk jail time by committing perjury to assist the Hospital in their cover up: I don’t think so.
I came to believe that Management was issued with a special little book of defensive remarks to help them deliberately lie to offload their responsibility. Each of these false statements went into my file as strikes against me, but I kept speaking out. Dumb I know, but very British. I was outspoken right out of the gate, not offensively so, I was very diplomatic, but persistent. My evaluations while not critical were mediocre at best; they played it safe. However, they would still have a hard time sighting incompetence due to the assignment I was covering; they would look very negligent for leaving a marginally competent person to cover a minimally staffed shift that was so professionally challenging in term of scope of practice and acuity of cases. As I see it “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” as far as how well I did my job so they have never directly attacked that. They did try and portray me as a short term employee although I had made it to the point where I was vested after five years in the OR; I was also about to move to the higher grade level at a higher pay scale due to experience, they gypped me out of that just in time.
All the while I was being told by other employees: “nothing ever changes here” and “don’t rock the boat.” I kept speaking out, I was on the education committee and I repeatedly suggested positive changes. When the very abusive
Nurse Manager was about to be switched to nights on the weekend where I worked a 16hour double shift I tried to change my shift and once again spoke up about how she dumped on everyone. She was never disciplined and frequently put those disparaging defensive remarks in her fabricated replies as to why I was abandoned in surgery. The point of no return for me was going above my immediate Nurse Manager to the assistant Director of Surgical Nursing to voice my concerns. I expressed myself my referring to the situation by saying that I believed we had reached a “toxic level of dangerous.” I reiterated my complaint about being left abandoned in surgery for 8, 10 and 12hours without a break for no reason and the fact that they never disciplined this abusive Manager. I was just told “she probably won’t do that again.”
I was told I would need to post my position or I would need a doctor’s note to come off my regular double shift on Saturday night; they had their work horse sucker and they didn’t want anything to change. Although I had devised my schedule for personal reasons I knew no one else would take it on as it would have been torturous for most people. 7:00AM – 7:30PM Friday; 3:00PM – 7:30AM Saturday Night and 3:00PM – 11:30PM Sunday evening leaving me free to work on my house during the week while covering their most difficult to fill shifts over the weekend. To most it would have inflicted the equivalent of the jet lag of flying to Europe and back once a week. For someone who was not disciplined in their sleep patterns it would have been impossible, after 20 years at sea I could cope. However, it should have been enough to say, hey I have done this for 2years, I needed to stop, but no, I had to prove that I had a medical condition. I came up with several alternative schedules all of them covering weekend shifts that were hard for the Managers to cover, but they were not interested in negotiations: I was scheduled for removal at all costs.
Healthcare workers all over the US are in a similar position of trying to prove that they have a medical condition that makes them unfit to tolerate the habitually abusive circumstances under which they are expected to work. Why couldn’t I go for 12hours without water, food, or urination? My Nurse Manager suggested that I might need to be “evaluated for a sugar problem.” Under the Geneva Convention we cannot treat POWs with this degree of inhumanity! We need to stand up to Management and compare the unreasonable demands placed on us in the workplace to human rights abuse, because in some extremes it really is that bad. The guilt trip about patient abandonment is so bogus; the real abandonment comes from Managements deliberate understaffing that endangers our patients. When I said that under such extreme circumstances I was in danger of making a mistake that could cause harm to a patient they warped that into an excuse to force me to take time off without pay. I provided a Doctor’s note and they ordered me to attend a FASAP psychological evaluation for “demanding an unreasonable accommodation for an undiagnosed medical condition.” After 2years of covering their most unpopular shifts they were now trying to prove I was a nut case.
One of the problems they were trying to obscure was their policy of not calling in their call people to stand by for Trauma. On the night when I was left for 12hours during a liver transplant the call person should have been there. When, during my arbitration, the Management team admitted leaving me continuously scrubbed for 12hours al they had to say was the ER was busy and I didn’t ask for a break. The real issue was where was the call person? My highlighting of the abandonment uncovered this serious ongoing negligent unwritten rule put in place by the abusive evening Nurse Manager; it was in violation of our Trauma coverage obligations under COMAR and they knew it, but saved the OR money. JCAHO’s cursory scheduled visits were mirrored by every other agency, the “best Hospital in America” was beyond scrutiny and beyond reproach. They felt that the regulations were made for lesser institutions and they could bend the rules a little here and there to cut their staffing budget costs. They were, and still are, on a pedestal and they refuse to allow me to disrupt that privileged status with crude realities like danger to the patients.
There is a dangerous catch 22 in reporting danger to patients. You go direct to an outside agency and they accuse you of not following the chain of command. You go to an internal Compliance Line or Risk Management and you help alert the Hospital to what they must cover up and the need to remove you. You follow the chain of command first and you really lay yourself open to abuse; you are immediately targeted for removal and it is so swift there is no chance to protect yourself. Once you start into the HR process you are toast; they can lie and cheat their way round everything by focusing on the need to remove you thereby diverting attention away from the real issues of negligence. The Compliance Line will say they cannot get involved with the Hospital’s disciplinary process; hey it works far too well for them to interfere, it’s ruthless. That is what I was told by the Compliance Line you have to go through your disciplinary hearings, appeals and all other avenues of recourse first. As you go through this morally bankrupt process their ongoing retaliatory abuses are totally ignored by the so called Compliance Line. That promise of protection is a complete lie, if they offer anyone any level of protection I would love to know when.
Even after alerting them to the circumstances you are facing and presenting evidence that you are experiencing retaliation for exposing negligence the disciplinary process is not vetted or monitored in any way at all. Although the process is painfully slow dragging on unnecessarily for months in the end it generally succeeds in rubber stamping your permanent removal. The Compliance Lines expect you to go to your Manager first; they know that most employees who attempt to complain about negligence will be knocked out of the loop at this very early stage. The Risk Management and Compliance Lines are the back up plan to control the rest on behalf of the Hospital’s best financial interests. If it works for them financially they will fight you tooth and nail.
In my case for them to appropriately discipline the Managers responsible for negligence towards patients and the retaliation used to silence me they would need to fire four key OR Managers up to and including the Director of Surgical Nursing and her assistant Director. This is not based on my personal feelings or views, but on insuring standards that are equivalent for all employees regardless of rank and meet the guidelines laid down in their employee rules handbook. Dismissal would be a requirement in order to accomplish the exact same level of accountability expected of all regular Hospital staff. When their ongoing negligence policies and unconscionable behavior lying under oath to victimize a subordinate are stacked up against the feeble excuses used to fire me it is simply obscene. This disparity in accountability destroys the loyalty of ordinary employees who know that Management can never be trusted. If Managers do not face comparable consequences then the Hospital might as well erect a six foot high sign in the lobby: “Managers will never be disciplined or held even minimally accountable for negligence or vindictive behavior towards their subordinates.”
Those incomprehensible delays aren’t at all necessary; they are part of the grand design of forced removal of whistleblowers. Time is distance and it is always dictated by them in favor of putting some serious distance between the point of your removal and any last glimmer of justice you might try to achieve. All too soon agencies will start telling you that it was too long ago for them to look into it. Move now and move quickly; fight the unreasonable delays aggressively and ask for everything in writing. It took an entire year for the Arbitrator who heard my case to get back to me with a final ruling; that was ludicrous. If they were genuinely concerned about danger to patients there would be no justification for stalling a Risk Management hearing at all. Every time you communicate with them drum home the urgency of correcting the dangerous ICU situation to protect patients before someone is harmed.
Unfortunately, Management have done as they always do under these circumstances: you are the agenda, your removal is all they care about. Once they have forcibly extricated you from the system entirely you have no right to protection from the retaliation that was used to fraudulently remove you through wrongful termination. They will also try to deny you any further involvement in the Hospital’s inadequate and dangerous Management of their ICU. As a non-employee you have no say any more: do not accept this as it remains your public duty to take action. This is the stock Compliance Line cop out: pretend that the disciplinary process is legitimate and above board and the problem i.e. “you” will go away. In your case it is Risk Management trying to legitimize the dismissal process, but the agenda is exactly the same. After you are extricated according to their bankrupt process they will completely ignore you. They will no longer reply to any communications and may get their legal office to send you a letter to dissuade you from making any further contact. I still send letters directly to the Dean and other key people at my former Hospital, I refuse to go away or be threatened by legal heavies. I feel much safer now after returning to the UK; we do have important freedoms here like you cannot be fired for having your arms folded or your hands on your hips while at work!
The other consequence of doing things as instructed by going up the chain of command first is that after they fire you your credibility is severely compromised. This is further complicated by the Compliance Line or Risk Management who automatically endorsed and facilitated the corrupt process used to silence you with bogus disciplinary action. Now any external agencies you report to can be easily convinced that you were legitimately fired for cause and are just a “disgruntled former employee.” The Hospital will warn these agencies about your dangerous agenda of revenge prompted by the loss of your job and they will convince them that your self-serving motivations are focused on trying to obtain a big settlement that you don’t deserve. Guess who these agencies will listen to, the Hospital every time. If you are working for a prestigious institution with a reputation for excellence they are unassailable and completely above the law. The trouble is they know they are untouchable and they have learned how to play the system well.
My only hope now is to sham my former Hospital into compliance, but even this id next to impossible; the press do not even want to touch them except to sing their praises. The Dean did listen to me once in the early days when we put together the OR retreat to create a “Perfect Day in the OR,” following a letter that I wrote. He must know my intentions are honorable and if he really cares about patient safety he should be motivated to act. I have difficulty believing that he has bought into their shallow web of lies.
There is another top Doctor there who has be the catalyst behind the majority of the new patient safety and quality care initiatives they keep winning accolades for. I have written to him too, but he must be in total denial as he sent my letter directly to HR. It would take so little to uncover the lies; there are so many inconsistencies in everything they have presented so far. The complete absence of any documentation in my case and the fact that I will not give up must make them at least suspicious. He believes that their Management, their HR process and their Compliance Line are all functioning legitimately in the best interests of patient safety.
If I can get him to reexamine my case and insist on a full investigation, he will finally realize there are absolutely no protections in place to insure that retaliation does not occur and that employees feel safe coming forward to alert Management to potential safety issues. He will be confronted by an internal Compliance Line that is a completely corrupt sham, “WE COMPLY” definitely does not comply! They certainly have an awful lot of explaining to do. All of the good Doctor’s ambitious initiatives are untenable without proper whistleblower protections in place. The real importance of examining my case is that he will see just how ludicrously easy it is for corrupt Managers to railroad an outspoken employee.
I have to believe he would take action to close this loophole. If this highly regarded Doctor and the Dean of the “Best Hospital in America” decide to act they are in an excellent position to be very influential in changing dangerous practices not only at my former Hospital, but at numerous other Hospitals across the country. I really need to have them both on my side. If the Dean and this Doctor, who lost his own father to Hospital negligence, continue to deliberately ignore my calls for an open investigation, genuine transparency and justice after five years of hell then I will be forced to believe that they too is corrupt. My Petition will target the Dean of my former Hospital and this Doctor in an effort to get them to insist on a proper investigation of my case. I hope that by posting it on the internet I will place them both in a position where they will have to explain their inaction and the lack of protection provided by their Hospital’s Compliance Line. In this way they may be forced to tighten HR disciplinary processes and overhaul their Compliance Line just to live up to the standard of honesty, integrity and transparency they claim on the web.
I feel so dreadful that it has come to this. I tried every possible way to get them to take appropriate action and now I feel I have no other choice than to go public. I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of; the shame is all theirs. There is so delight in shaming them, on the contrary, I am deeply saddened by it; sad that this is my only hope of justice in the “land of the free, home of the brave!” Although I never intend to give up fighting for justice, this is one more last ditch appeal to be allowed to take back my life as no one should face a life sentence of shame for trying to protect their patients from harm. I will let you all know when the Petition is finally posted as I hope I can count on your support. There will be many valuable links that may be useful to those facing retaliation; this is what is taking time, to add in all the links.
I believe that a number of Nurses who are facing this type of retaliation would do well to contact the organization that this Doctor heads up as he is in a position to help make major changes a tangible reality. If this man were to comprehend the extent of the problem we are all facing and the danger it presented to patients I am sure he would feel compelled to act. I just hope he is motivated by genuine concern for the safety of Hospital patients and he is not just part of my former Hospital’s PR spin machinery. Until we have genuine patient advocates in these positions of power we will remain helpless. I hope some of what I post on this site is helpful and supportive to others facing a similar dilemma. Stay strong and don’t give up,

Fair Winds & Following Seas, Kim.

PS: Beware of they stalling on this investigation. Call them back on it, call them a lot and write. Stress the urgency in writing, create a paper trail a mile long. They will leave you to stew for months, years if they can, so don't let it drop.