Missouri Nurse Sues Hospital Alleging Co-Workers Secretly Sedated Patients
A Missouri nurse who worked more than 30 years at a Missouri hospital and had maintained her mental health nursing certification for over 20 years, recently filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the hospital. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff claims that her direct supervisor launched a retaliation crusade against her after she reported that staff members on her unit were sedating patients at night with Benadryl. She alleges that in violation of hospital policy, nurses would give patients Benadryl to make them drowsy and fall asleep, and that the nurses did not enter that medication in the patients’ charts.
The nurse plaintiff asserts that she first noticed the misuse of Benadryl in March 2019. She claims in the lawsuit that when she checked with the director of behavioral health services regarding reports of Benadryl use in the hospital’s psychiatric unit, she found none. She reported the misuse to her supervisor—the director of her department. This report of misuse resulted in retaliation against her.
The alleged retaliation campaign included denial of her time on the schedule, negative and false evaluations, an unwanted transfer to the pediatric psychiatric unit, and a false accusation of refusing an assignment when she made the unit’s supervisor aware of her lack of experience or training in pediatric admissions. The plaintiff alleges the retaliation ultimately involved her being suspended for 14 weeks without pay and being placed on a final warning. Her attorney asserts that all of the retaliation experienced by the plaintiff directly violates the hospital’s progressive discipline policy. She remains on unpaid leave.
Compliance Perspective
Allowing supervisory staff to retaliate against staff members who report incidents of patient treatment that violate a facility’s policies and procedures or state and federal regulations, and failing to adequately investigate those reported incidents, may be considered provision of substandard quality of care, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures regarding the facility’s non-retaliation policy for reporting of incidents of suspected violations.
- Train staff about the facility’s non-retaliation policy, and the importance of staff members reporting any suspected incidents to their supervisor or through the Hotline.
- Periodically audit reported incidents to determine if they have been thoroughly investigated and to discover any incidence of retaliation against staff members who make reports or participate in investigations into the facts. Also interview staff to determine if they feel threatened with retaliation should they report a suspected incident.
