Whistleblower: Court Turns Down Nurse’s Case.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
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A healthcare employee cannot be disciplined or fired in retaliation for complaints about a threat to patient health or safety or a violation of Medicare or Medicaid regulations.
However, an employee does not attain legal whistleblower status for expressions of dissatisfaction with the job or disagreements with the way management is running things.
CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEAL December 14, 2018A home health nurse was fired after she sent a series of complaints via email to the company president and the company human resources director. She sued for wrongful termination claiming she was fired in retaliation for those complaints.
She complained about mandatory overtime which fatigued her and made her less than fully effective on the job. She complained about the dead animals and rotting food in a client’s home that made her sick. She complained that she did not feel safe having to go to a client's home in a neighborhood where heroin use was rampant. And she complained about the shift assignments her supervisor was giving to other company employees.
The California Court of Appeal turned down the nurse's case. Healthcare employees have the absolute right to complain about issues that affect the health, safety and wellbeing of their patients. However, this nurse's complaints were personal grievances over her own working conditions and disagreements over how higher-ups in the company were running things. Her complaints related only tangentially, if at all to patients' health, safety and wellbeing.
Bielska v. Home Health, 2018 WL 6583860 (Cal. App., December 14, 2018).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse-discharge.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-collective-bargaining.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/whistleblower-nurse.htm