Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession (6)8 Aug 98

   Quick Summary: A home health agency is allowed to prohibit its employees from using clients' phones for their own personal calls.  Even though this live-in aide had the clients’ permission to use their phones, and the aide paid the phone bills totaling $950, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld the home health agency’s rule against abuse of clients’ property. The court ruled the aide was guilty of intentional misconduct justifying her termination. Benton v. U.S. Homecare Corporation, 671 N.Y.S. 2d 202 (N.Y. Sup., 1998).