From the this-sounds-so-very-very-wrong dept:
Two nurses who lodged a complaint with the Texas Medical Board about a physician’s standard of practice at a West Texas hospital face up to 10 years in prison after being indicted on charges of misuse of official information.
The charges have raised the ire of the medical community, which calls it a case of wrongful prosecution.
[…]
Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts, whose department investigated the case, said the nurses circumvented hospital policy for reporting bad medical practices, didn’t seek patients’ permission when they anonymously sent medical records of 10 patients to the board and didn’t act in good faith. Roberts said he interviewed patients and that none wanted to complain about their care.
“What it boils down to is we have a couple of nurses here who have a personal vendetta against a doctor,” he said.
The nurses, who worked for the county hospital, filed their complaint in the spring. It did not name the patients but included medical record numbers. The physician then complained to the sheriff about being harassed, the nurses group said. After the sheriff’s investigation, the district attorney presented the charges to the grand jury last month.
The medical board has also objected to the criminal prosecution of the nurses. It told the county and district attorneys that it is improper to prosecute them because complaints are confidential and not subject to subpoena and that under federal law the board is exempt from patient privacy laws.
Read more in The Star-Telegram.
Thanks to a reader for sending me this link.
Clearly we do not have all of the facts in the case and we are not privy to what was presented to the grand jury, but the old adage about indicting a ham sandwich comes to mind.
If the physician felt that the complaint was frivolous or malicious, he could have made that defense to the state board who is in the best position to evaluate the merits of any concerns the nurses raised. Further, it sounds like the nurses did not turn over patient records or PHI without consent but merely give the board record numbers to review. I’m no HIPAA lawyer, but I don’t see a problem with that.
Not explained in the news report is how the sheriff obtained the names and contact information for the patients, which is something I’d really like to know.
And as those of us in health care know, the fact that patients may not complain or may not wish to complain does not mean that there is no problem in standard of care. What will the D.A. do if the state board finds that the complaint was founded? But even if the board decides no action against the physician is necessary or appropriate, it does not mean that the nurses were harassing the physician or doing anything inappropriate in raising concerns with the state board or providing them with medical record numbers.
If anyone sees any follow-up on this case, please send it along. Something just does not pass the ‘sniff test’ on this case, but maybe my sense of smell is off.