Blacklisted from HCA

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So I talked to a recruiter from HealthTrust and they said that I was banned from working at HCA ever again because I broke my StaRn contract years ago. Is this legal? Nowhere in the contract did it mention that I would be black listed if I broke it. All it said was that I had to pay them back $10,000 pro-rated. Could I get a lawyer and sue for wrongful employment practices? and my second question is: if I absolutely can’t work as an RN at HCA anymore, could I just work at HCA again as an NP or MD or CRNA or even Perfusionist? I don’t believe any of these licenses are directly  “employed” by hospitals but have their own groups that are then contracted by the hospitals. could I work for HCA again in the future that way? 

Specializes in Urgent Care, Oncology.
1 hour ago, healthcare2020 said:

@nursingsprettycool17, BSN I am part of the Human Resources team at HealthTrust and I was concerned when I read your post. There appears to be a misunderstanding as your comments do not reflect our policy. I would like the opportunity to clear up any concerns. Please contact me at [email protected] and I would be happy to clarify and discuss your situation in greater detail.

Well, this is kinda creepy...

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1 hour ago, DowntheRiver said:

Well, this is kinda creepy...

And the room goes silent. ?

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3 minutes ago, Sour Lemon said:

And the room goes silent. ?

Meh...not too shocking. "Supply chain" arm of company with $51B revenue last year hits lowly nursing discussion forum to call nurse a liar.

?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2020/07/22/hospital-giant-hca-reaps-822-million-profit-from-cares-act-stimulus-money/#18f5b740593c

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23 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

About 20 is years ago I was let go due to a series of events that were the result of my being an alcoholic. I was never under the influence at my job - not one single drop - but because I tried to kill myself they reported me to the BON as an impaired nurse. I had no issue with that and was even greatful that I could go to treatment and get help and keep my license. Fast forward 16 years and I was starting into a BSN program when I went to my clinical site I was told I could not do clinicals there because of my record with the parent company who just so happended to own the 4 hospitals in my area. 

I did speak to a lawyer familiar with employment and professional liscensing law and was told - Bottom line a private company in an "At Will"States can fire a person any time for any reason or no reason at all as long as they were not discriminating on basis or race, sexual orientation religion or "qualified disability" Also they are within their rights to not hire or rehire anyone as long as the reason wasn't something from the list below. 

Being that every thing I have learned about HCA hospitals proves they are a crappy organization to work for I'd say you dodged a bullet. Things do happen for a reason even if it doesn't make sense right now it may become clear in the future. 

Hppy

Thank you for sharing that. Makes great sense. I appreciate it. 

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I know they have near-monopolies in some regions of the country....but seriously, you don't want to work for those guys.  Even as a traveler.  Do a little googling about their historic levels of medicare and medicaid fraud, their aggressive collections practices, and the bazillion threads on AN about people being held hostage by their StaRN contracts yet not receiving any meaningful training.  I worked in an HCA hospital in Texas that often had 1:8 ratios on days for medsurg - those nurses always looked like they were staring at the headlight of an oncoming train.  You can do better!

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty AND Child/Adolescent Psych.
5 hours ago, DowntheRiver said:

Well, this is kinda creepy...

Super creepy. They only joined 6 hrs ago and this was their only post.

Like what the heck? That is some intense stalking or whatnot. 

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2 hours ago, areason4stars said:

Super creepy. They only joined 6 hrs ago and this was their only post.

Like what the heck? That is some intense stalking or whatnot. 

And some are skeptical when reminded that employers often “peruse” this site.

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Specializes in school nurse.
6 hours ago, laflaca said:

I know they have near-monopolies in some regions of the country....but seriously, you don't want to work for those guys.  Even as a traveler.  Do a little googling about their historic levels of medicare and medicaid fraud, their aggressive collections practices, and the bazillion threads on AN about people being held hostage by their StaRN contracts yet not receiving any meaningful training.  I worked in an HCA hospital in Texas that often had 1:8 ratios on days for medsurg - those nurses always looked like they were staring at the headlight of an oncoming train.  You can do better!

I look forward to when the HCA stalker responds to this and explains away all of these points.

In fact, I'm shocked it hasn't happened already...

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.
42 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

I look forward to when the HCA stalker responds to this and explains away all of these points.

In fact, I'm shocked it hasn't happened already...

And this is why we should be careful what we say on this public forum. We go by avatars, but - with enough information - we could be identified. 

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

This thread is full of many lessons that nurses, especially newer nurses, should heed!

Be very cautious when signing a contract, especially as a new grad.

Be very thoughtful when breaking a contract, because it can and will come back to bite you. Nursing is, indeed, a small world.

Be even more careful when posting on an internet forum, no matter how annonymous you think it may be.

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Specializes in CVICU.
On 9/7/2020 at 9:25 PM, hppygr8ful said:

About 20 is years ago I was let go due to a series of events that were the result of my being an alcoholic. I was never under the influence at my job - not one single drop - but because I tried to kill myself they reported me to the BON as an impaired nurse. I had no issue with that and was even greatful that I could go to treatment and get help and keep my license. Fast forward 16 years and I was starting into a BSN program when I went to my clinical site I was told I could not do clinicals there because of my record with the parent company who just so happended to own the 4 hospitals in my area. 

I did speak to a lawyer familiar with employment and professional liscensing law and was told - Bottom line a private company in an "At Will"States can fire a person any time for any reason or no reason at all as long as they were not discriminating on basis or race, sexual orientation religion or "qualified disability" Also they are within their rights to not hire or rehire anyone as long as the reason wasn't something from the list below. 

Being that every thing I have learned about HCA hospitals proves they are a crappy organization to work for I'd say you dodged a bullet. Things do happen for a reason even if it doesn't make sense right now it may become clear in the future. 

Hppy

this is actually concerning, so you’re saying that you couldn’t do clinicals for your BSN because HCA banned you from working at their hospitals? I hope this doesn’t become the case for me? what was the excuse that they used? working doesn’t equal learning so I don’t understand this. this is actually pretty scary because I plan on going back to school soon...

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Specializes in oncology.
On 9/7/2020 at 10:57 AM, nursingsprettycool17 said:

I broke my StaRn contract years ago. Is this legal? Nowhere in the contract did it mention that I would be black listed if I broke it. All it said was that I had to pay them back $10,000 pro-rated.

What you paid back were the educational costs of the program but you left with the education attained. They did not re-coup your salary and, in addition you took a place that someone who wanted to stay could have taken. You had every right to quit if you wanted to but you have to accept the consequences.

In the nursing school I taught at we had one student who was refused clinical time at one of the hospitals we used. It was some legal matter. We had to always make sure she was not going to that hospital and it effected her learning. There were specialties missed, she had the same instructors through her 2 years. Now we do not accept a student who is limited in where they can do clinical.

One instructor threw her weight around when a family member was hospitalized. The hospital refused to allow her as a clinical instructor in the future. She was told by HR she could not be accommodated as clinical placements are usually done by seniority and course need. Suddenly she decided to make amends with the offended hospital. Years later she was counseled to leave her faculty position. I don't know why but she was difficult to work with. I guess the leopard didn't change all her spots!

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