Report a bad doctor to the authorities, go to jail

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/08/03/0803inglis_edit.html

In a stunning display of good ol' boy idiocy and abuse of prosecutorial discretion, two West Texas nurses have been fired from their jobs and indicted with a third-degree felony carrying potential penalties of two-to-ten years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of $10,000. Why? Because they exercised a basic tenet of the nurse's Code of Ethics — the duty to advocate for the health and safety of their patients.

The nurses, in their 50s and both members of the American Nurses Association/Texas Nurses Association, reported concerns about a doctor practicing at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit. They were unamused by his improperly encouraging patients in the hospital emergency department and in the rural health clinic to buy his own herbal "medicines," and they thought it improper for him to take hospital supplies to perform a procedure at a patient's home rather than in the hospital. (The doctor did not succeed, as reportedly he was stopped by the hospital chief of staff.)

The nurses went up their chain of command with their complaints. They got nowhere with their 25-bed rural hospital. So they anonymously turned the doctor into the Texas Medical Board using six medical record numbers of the involved hospital patients .

When the medical board notified the physician that he was under investigation for mistreatment and poor quality of care, he filed a harassment complaint with the Winkler County Sheriff's Department.

To find out who made the anonymous complaint, the sheriff left no stone unturned. He interviewed all of the patients whose medical record case numbers were listed in the report and asked the hospital to identify who would have had access to the patient records in question.

At some point, the sheriff obtained a copy of the anonymous complaint and used the description of a "female over 50" to narrow the potential complainants to the two nurses. He then got a search warrant to seize their work computers and found a copy of the letter to the medical board on one of them.

Charged by the county attorney's office with "misuse of official information," on July 15 a hearing in the Winkler County courthouse on motions to dismiss the nurses' case resulted in no rulings. In response, the nurses got widespread support.

Good Ol' Boy Network at its finest.

[Jasper]

Outrage!  Truly anonymous tipsters are fundamental to law enforcement.  I hope the sheriff is put straight.

[Jenne]

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/08/03/0803inglis_edit.html

In a stunning display of good ol' boy idiocy and abuse of prosecutorial discretion, two West Texas nurses have been fired from their jobs and indicted with a third-degree felony carrying potential penalties of two-to-ten years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of $10,000. Why? Because they exercised a basic tenet of the nurse's Code of Ethics — the duty to advocate for the health and safety of their patients.

The nurses, in their 50s and both members of the American Nurses Association/Texas Nurses Association, reported concerns about a doctor practicing at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit. They were unamused by his improperly encouraging patients in the hospital emergency department and in the rural health clinic to buy his own herbal "medicines," and they thought it improper for him to take hospital supplies to perform a procedure at a patient's home rather than in the hospital. (The doctor did not succeed, as reportedly he was stopped by the hospital chief of staff.)

The nurses went up their chain of command with their complaints. They got nowhere with their 25-bed rural hospital. So they anonymously turned the doctor into the Texas Medical Board using six medical record numbers of the involved hospital patients .

When the medical board notified the physician that he was under investigation for mistreatment and poor quality of care, he filed a harassment complaint with the Winkler County Sheriff's Department.

To find out who made the anonymous complaint, the sheriff left no stone unturned. He interviewed all of the patients whose medical record case numbers were listed in the report and asked the hospital to identify who would have had access to the patient records in question.

At some point, the sheriff obtained a copy of the anonymous complaint and used the description of a "female over 50" to narrow the potential complainants to the two nurses. He then got a search warrant to seize their work computers and found a copy of the letter to the medical board on one of them.

Charged by the county attorney's office with "misuse of official information," on July 15 a hearing in the Winkler County courthouse on motions to dismiss the nurses' case resulted in no rulings. In response, the nurses got widespread support.

Good Ol' Boy Network at its finest.

I dunno, sounds like the guy wasn't that bad of a doc--he wanted to do patient care in their homes?  Big fucking deal, if it wasn't surgery.  If it was changing out an IV or something, more power to him.  Going into hospitals for simple procedures is costly and actually can be more dangerous than just getting it done at home. (I'm speaking from experience here, when my husband had trouble MAKING BLOOD we held our breath in the hospital hoping he didn't get a staph infection from the hospital when he got his transfusions and his iv changed out.  Much safer to change the iv at home, so we got supplies to do it, and I had to help him flush his line, scary shit, I'm telling you.)

And the "buying" the doc's green medicines?  I mean, ok, if he was pedaling dope, that's not cool, but if it was a joke, then they were being perimenapausal douches.

[Doktor Howl]

Why did they use patient information?

[East Coast Hustle]

yeah, I don't really support the idea of doctors peddling their own herbal remedies to patients, but I also think the nurses might have gone a little overboard in trying to fuck with the guy. My guess is that there are some unrevealed personal/professional conflicts between doctor and nurses and this is just a proxy for resolving those issues.

[Bruno]

This almost sounds like it could be a medical marijuana doctor, except they don't have MM in Texas.

[Iason Ouabache]

Why did they use patient information?

They gave the medical record numbers to the medical board as part of the complaint.  They never divulged any personal information about the patients. The doctor got pissed when he heard about the complaint and used his buddy sheriff to retaliate. Including using the medical record numbers to interview the patients and confiscating the nurses' computers to find the letter they wrote to the board. The system is supposed to protect whistle-blowers, not throw them in jail.

I dunno, sounds like the guy wasn't that bad of a doc--he wanted to do patient care in their homes?  Big fucking deal, if it wasn't surgery.  If it was changing out an IV or something, more power to him.  Going into hospitals for simple procedures is costly and actually can be more dangerous than just getting it done at home. (I'm speaking from experience here, when my husband had trouble MAKING BLOOD we held our breath in the hospital hoping he didn't get a staph infection from the hospital when he got his transfusions and his iv changed out.  Much safer to change the iv at home, so we got supplies to do it, and I had to help him flush his line, scary shit, I'm telling you.)

And the "buying" the doc's green medicines?  I mean, ok, if he was pedaling dope, that's not cool, but if it was a joke, then they were being perimenapausal douches.

One of the complaints is that he did a botched skin graft without surgical previlages. Another was that he was using patient information to peddle his herbal supplements. Doesn't matter if the nurses were bitches or not. The doctor seems incompetent and decided to go on a vendetta when someone finally turned him in.

Here's a better link about the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/us/07nurses.html

[Jenne]

Meh.  Sounds like a witchhunt.  link won't open for me.  And yeah, sometimes it DOES matter if the coworkers are bitches.  No one's job performance is great when there's a reverse vendetta against them.

I'm not saying this guy's innocent, but sounds like he just fought fire with fire.  There's two sides to every story that starts out like this.  Having seen what my husband's had against him with coworkers and patients, I know it can go both ways.  I think it's way overboard to give the nurses felony charges, but then I usually throw out the "normal" litmus for anything having to do with Texas.  (sorry Iptuous)

[Template]

Meh.  Sounds like a witchhunt.  link won't open for me.  And yeah, sometimes it DOES matter if the coworkers are bitches.  No one's job performance is great when there's a reverse vendetta against them.

I'm not saying this guy's innocent, but sounds like he just fought fire with fire.  There's two sides to every story that starts out like this.  Having seen what my husband's had against him with coworkers and patients, I know it can go both ways.  I think it's way overboard to give the nurses felony charges, but then I usually throw out the "normal" litmus for anything having to do with Texas.  (sorry Iptuous)

At least we aren't Florida.

[Freeky]

Dear previous poster,

It has come to our attention that you user name is weird. In the event that we need ever speak your name aloud, we shall refer to you as "Jimenez."

Thank you for your time.

[Iason Ouabache]

Meh.  Sounds like a witchhunt.  link won't open for me.  And yeah, sometimes it DOES matter if the coworkers are bitches.  No one's job performance is great when there's a reverse vendetta against them.

I'm not saying this guy's innocent, but sounds like he just fought fire with fire.  There's two sides to every story that starts out like this.  Having seen what my husband's had against him with coworkers and patients, I know it can go both ways.  I think it's way overboard to give the nurses felony charges, but then I usually throw out the "normal" litmus for anything having to do with Texas.  (sorry Iptuous)

The important parts from the NY Times link:

Mrs. Mitchell counters that as an administrative nurse, she had a professional obligation to protect patients from what she saw as a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures — including a failed skin graft that Dr. Arafiles performed in the emergency room, without surgical privileges. He also sutured a rubber tip to a patient's crushed finger for protection, an unconventional remedy that was later flagged as inappropriate by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

When the medical board notified Dr. Arafiles of the anonymous complaint, he protested to his friend, the Winkler County sheriff, that he was being harassed. The sheriff, an admiring patient who credits the doctor with saving him after a heart attack, obtained a search warrant to seize the two nurses' work computers and found the letter.

It was not long after the public hospital hired Dr. Arafiles in 2008 that the nurses said they began to worry. They sounded internal alarms but felt they were not being heeded by administrators.

Frustrated and fearing for patients, they directed the medical board to six cases "of concern" that were identified by file numbers but not by patient names. The letter also mentioned that Dr. Arafiles was sending e-mail messages to patients about an herbal supplement he sold on the side.

The hospital administrator, Stan Wiley, said in an interview that Dr. Arafiles had been reprimanded on several occasions for improprieties in writing prescriptions and performing surgery and had agreed to make changes. Mr. Wiley, who said it was difficult to recruit physicians to remote West Texas, said he knew when he hired Dr. Arafiles that he had a restriction on his license stemming from his supervision of a weight-loss clinic.

In a surprise inspection last September, state investigators found several violations by Dr. Arafiles and concluded that the hospital had discriminated against the nurses by firing them for "reporting in good faith."

[Jenne]

Oh geez, gets really good there at the end.    Ok, I shouldn't laugh.  But the hospital administrators seem the real perps here.  They hire a dirty doc, and when he performs as reported when they hired him, it's a case of, "Well, can't get no one else to work here!"

Interesting that the good doc made friends with the SHERIFF of all people in the place.  It's not WHO you are, but WHO you know.

Sounds like the state board and the licensing bureau need to take the hospital's license away and make sure that doctor doesn't practice outside a vet's or something.  (Although, the way the piece is written, it's VERY slanted, still.)

[Jenne]

Meh.  Sounds like a witchhunt.  link won't open for me.  And yeah, sometimes it DOES matter if the coworkers are bitches.  No one's job performance is great when there's a reverse vendetta against them.

I'm not saying this guy's innocent, but sounds like he just fought fire with fire.  There's two sides to every story that starts out like this.  Having seen what my husband's had against him with coworkers and patients, I know it can go both ways.  I think it's way overboard to give the nurses felony charges, but then I usually throw out the "normal" litmus for anything having to do with Texas.  (sorry Iptuous)

At least we aren't Florida.

I say that to myself everyday: At least we aren't Florida.  Or Texas.

(sorry Squid)

[Jenne]

Dear previous poster,

It has come to our attention that you user name is weird. In the event that we need ever speak your name aloud, we shall refer to you as "Jimenez."

Thank you for your time.

Yes, but what to do with that extra "w" at the end?

[Freeky]

I get to the "z" and my brain shorts out, so I hardly ever even see it.