I hope this is not the latest trend to be putting nurses in jail.
(CNN)Current and former employees of an Ohio nursing facility are accused of mistreating two patients in their care, including one who died as a result of the nurses' actions, Attorney General Dave Yost said Thursday.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted seven people who worked as nurses in 2017 at Whetstone Gardens and Care Center in Columbus, Yost said in a news conference.
The defendants face 34 charges, including involuntary manslaughter and patient neglect, Yost's office said.
One patient "literally rotted to death" as a direct result of the nurses' neglect, Yost said, adding that another suffered physical harm because nurses falsified her medical records and forged signatures.
"This is gut-wrenching for anyone who has entrusted a care facility with the well-being and safety of a loved one," Yost said.
The accused include six current and former employees.
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Department, Informatics.
On 2/16/2019 at 11:03 AM, mtmkjr said:
If this type of forgery is is a felony for anyone else, why not for healthcare professionals?
There were two incidences. One was for forgery and yes those nurses should be held accountable. However, the second was the patient got septic because of an infected wound. In this incident, there is much blame to go around.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
44 minutes ago, hyllisR said:
Why should "just" the nurses go to jail? If the patient's wounds were so necrotic that the patient went into septic shock, this did not happen overnight. Doctors are paid a nice salary to oversee these patients most likely by CMS. The providers did not look at the necrotic wound? The providers did not ask for debridements? The patient's labs did not show an infection? The wounds were not ordered to be cultured? Is no one monitoring the patient's vital signs?
I am not protecting other nurses when they are clearly wrong. There were 100,000 deaths due to medical mistakes last year according to CMS. No doctors are being hauled off to jail and no one is calling for doctors to be hauled off to jail. Usually, when these sentinel events occur, it is a systems process error. I can't go along with just the "nurses" are responsible.
If I found a patient with a necrotic wound, I'd be on the phone to the provider, for full bloods, a referal to a wound specialist and not stopping until someone listened.
Why were the nurses not demanding that something be done?
Its all very well and good saying "oh but the provider didnt do X" however the providers are reliant on what the nurses in the facility tell them. They dont mind read
As for wound swabs of the patients wounds, given how colonised many of those wounds are a fairly hit and miss process in terms of getting an accurate picture of what bacteria are present.
Why was a blood test not done. A blood test would at least show an elevation in CPR and WBC indicating a potential infection.
Why should "just" the nurses go to jail? If the patient's wounds were so necrotic that the patient went into septic shock, this did not happen overnight. Doctors are paid a nice salary to oversee these patients most likely by CMS. The providers did not look at the necrotic wound? The providers did not ask for debridements? The patient's labs did not show an infection? The wounds were not ordered to be cultured? Is no one monitoring the patient's vital signs?
I am not protecting other nurses when they are clearly wrong. There were 100,000 deaths due to medical mistakes last year according to CMS. No doctors are being hauled off to jail and no one is calling for doctors to be hauled off to jail. Usually, when these sentinel events occur, it is a systems process error. I can't go along with just the "nurses" are responsible.
One of the people charged was a nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner and the ADON were the people with the most serious of the charges. I would assume that the nurse practitioner was the "Doctor" who was "paid a nice salary to oversee these patients."
The corporation that owned the facility was fined nearly $100,000.
So wouldn't you agree that there should be more charges brought besides the nurses?
More charges? That's for the prosecutor to decide what is appropriate. My point was that I fall on the side that feels the actions of the "professionals" involved in this case merit criminal charges.
I worked in a nursing home for two weeks. I ran away. I felt i was forced to do things that could have my license revoked. I was only able to run away because I have a good support system and i live in an area with a decent job market. I was able to find another job in a few months, and i was able to live comfortably while i was unemployed. Not everyone can say the same. Its not always so easy to walk away when you have bills to pay, no support and no other job on the horizon.
I think many of us here know what goes on in some nursing homes. And i think we know its not just about the nurses.
The nursing home that I left is still standing, and as far as i know, the nurses there still have their.licences. They will probably always have a license unless there is a serious incident leading to an investigation. It is expected that they will falsify records and skip treatments with 30 to 40 patients to one nurse. It has been normalized. I do believe we have to stand up for these nurses. Everybody knows whats happening, ignores it, then throws these women under the bus when someone outside of the system takes notice.
Nurses deal with understaffing/lack of resources in hospitals, schools, and just about every.place we practice. Its dangerous to nursing practice. The nurses mentioned in this article are probably finished professionally. But let's not pretend that its only about them and their poor personal choices.
Thank you to hyllisR- your passion for your fellow nurses is appreciated. I wish i had an answer to solve the systemic problems.
Yes, I hope it's a trend because these people SHOULD BE in jail.
Falsifying information and forging signatures is a choice. If that in turn causes a patient's death, then yes, you should be charged with contributing to that person's death.
Abuse of a patient, is a choice.
Severe neglect, is a choice.
I have no problem with these people sitting in jail.
Don't protect other nurses that make these choices.
^^^ THIS ^^^
This case is very different from one where honest errors result in injury/death. JMO
I do not, and will never understand why this board bends over backwards to defend nurses that demonstrate wonton negligence, bad professional judgement leading to patient harm, and outright unethical and illegal acts like falsifying charts.
Eating my Chinese food for lunch, that typo cracked me up.
Add forging nurses' signatures to the illegal acts (which I guess would fall under 'falsifying charts,' but since it drags an additional person into the deception, seems even worse).
this is absolutely horrendous, but not uncommon at all to see subpar care ending in the death of residents in these type of places. I put blame on the nurses that decided to neglect their resident's and forge documentation, but I also lay blame at the administration's feet as well. Most likely then not, I'm sure the nurses were understaffed and one nurse with more resident's than they can safely handle.
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
Lesson of this story; nurses do not sign something that you didn't do. I've worked in nursing homes, SNFs, Subacute facilities early on in my career. The ethical nurses did their best, prioritized, and did not sign treatment MARs if something wasn't done (no matter how pressed by administration they were.) They passed the information in report to the next shift and documented a note. Ah, but the facility pets initialed everything and the PTB loved them for it...."they always get their work done" and "they have great time management skills" (*cough, *choke, *sputter). Well now the chickens have come home to roost and the piper needs paid. I have very little empathy for these nurses/ADON.
Last I read, she was going to trial and the license was suspended. that was a sad case and so unnecessary when all she had to do was cover her butt and send the patient out to the hospital from the start.
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
5 minutes ago, Dy-no-mite Nurse1 said:
Last I read, she was going to trial and the license was suspended. that was a sad case and so unnecessary when all she had to do was cover her butt and send the patient out to the hospital from the start.
I know ?. It's hard when you have to juggle between watching other patients and sticking to scheduled neuro checks. I would have fought with the physician and sent the patient to the ED knowing neuro checks are impossible in that situation even if I didn't know this resident had White House connections. But that's monday morning quarterback thinking.
PhyllisMSN, MSN, RN
54 Posts
There were two incidences. One was for forgery and yes those nurses should be held accountable. However, the second was the patient got septic because of an infected wound. In this incident, there is much blame to go around.