Healthcare Compliance Perspective – Wrongful Termination:
The Compliance Officer will review the facility’s policies and procedures with the Compliance Committee regarding the dissemination of its nondiscrimination policy and the protocol to be used to investigate an
incident where an employee is suspected of committing a crime. Information about the facility’s nondiscrimination policy should be included in new hire orientation, the employee handbook and posted in all employee break rooms. Employees should be educated periodically about how to file an anonymous complaint using the Compliance Hotline. Human Resources should periodically provide confidential surveys to employees to ascertain if they have or are currently experiencing any form of discrimination or harassment because of their race and color, national origin, sex or religion.
Claiming she was falsely accused of stealing based on her race, a Houston woman has brought a wrongful termination suit against a nursing home in the Houston metroplex area. The woman was formerly employed as a nurse in the facility until an incident in December 2017, involving the disappearance of a bottle of Tramadol (an opioid derivative pain medication).
The woman was approached by another nurse who told her that she, “needed to gather her things and leave the site because the facility’s administrator thought she had stolen the medication because she was black.”
The lawsuit claims that the woman spoke directly to the administrator about the incident and he confirmed to her that “he believed she stole the bottle because she was black.”
Although the woman claims that “she was eventually fully exonerated because the bottle of Tramadol was found in the possession of a different nurse who would later confess,” the nursing home would not allow the woman to return to work.
Through the lawsuit, the woman is seeking monetary damages in an undetermined amount and a jury trial.
