Nights in the ICU
The hospital, which is owned by the Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, near Anaheim, has maintained a virtual vow of silence on the matter, issuing press releases that stick to high-minded generalities. “We honor the dignity of each worker by not discussing or sharing information that is considered confidential,” said one such release, issued last Thursday. Hospital spokesperson Courtney Hunt-Munther politely declined to elaborate.
This tight-lipped approach could become more difficult to maintain as the firings — and the circumstances surrounding them — attract more outside attention. The California Nurses Association plans to file a grievance on the nurses’ behalf to ensure due process was observed, said Liz Jacobs, a spokesperson for the union, in a phone conversation Monday. Thornton said such a challenge could drag on for months. So far, however, no complaints have been filed with the state Board of Registered Nursing or its parent organization, the California Department of Consumer Affairs. District Attorney Paul Gallegos told the Journal last week that nothing has been reported to law enforcement, either.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any proof [of wrongdoing],” Thornton said. “We do good patient care. We’re some of the best nurses there. The problem is we speak our mind about policies we don’t agree with.”
Both nurses said they had never been disciplined in any way prior to their suspension and were given no warnings ahead of time. During their interrogations, they said, management warned that they were reserving the right to report the infractions. “They said, ‘We don’t know if we’ll turn this over to the state board, but if we keep hearing about this in the paper, we will,” the anonymous nurse said. “It wasn’t even subtle. We were threatened. … And the rest of the staff are living in a climate of fear.”
St. Joseph Hospital Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Bob Brannigan last week sent a memo to the staff, physicians and volunteers of both St. Joe’s and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna (also owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange) that seemed designed to quell the nerves of anyone reading reports of the firings. (A copy of the memo was leaked anonymously to the Journal.) “It is likely local media will report on a recent situation involving the employment of five ICU nurses. …,” the release stated. “As with all cases involving questions or concerns about employee performance, St. Joseph Hospital treats each employee situation with utmost respect and we follow a thorough individual review process to ensure fair and consistent treatment for each employee.”
Thornton and his colleague deny that claim and are counting on their union to shed light on St. Joseph Hospital’s secretive personnel practices. Of greater concern to past and future patients and their families, of course, is the hospital’s quality of care. St. Joe’s administrators and the fired nurses alike insist that has always been their top priority.
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EIGHT Comments
Comment / By Former SJH RN / Aug. 8, 2009, 10:08 a.m.
I just want to say to say the that a hospital in this climate of nursing shortages would be very remiss in firing “the best nurses there” because they “speak their minds about policys”. It seems more like there were policies the nurses didn’t agree with and so they ignored them which put the hospital in a position of liability for failing to comply with their written policy and procedures. Also, a really good nurse can usually manage his/her patients without sedating them to the point they can’t be awakened the next day. This is abuse and warnings aren’t required….abuse is grounds for automatic termination and for the hospital to be contemplating a report to the BRN ( after a thorough investigation)is appropriate. These are smart people but they got away with a lot of unprofessional activity for too long and for a while at least had a manager who did nothing to discourage it and in fact was very hard on staff who weren’t her “pets” while fraternizing both at and away from work with others.Then finally, thanks to a very concerned and caring Dr. (Scott Sageman) they got caught, and frankly these behaviors ( and some others not mentioned)are not new at least for a few of these people. They are known for their hostile and condescending treatment of other hospital employees not in their “cliche”.
Comment / By Branshard / Aug. 10, 2009, noon
Wow, I was an in-patient at John Muir in Walnut Creek recently, and everything the nurses gave me was exactly recorded. Whether a new IV bag or a shot or a single pill, the procedure was the same. Scan my wrist bar code, scan the item.
I’m surprised they apparently don’t have a similarly strong dispensation control system in place at St. Joe’s.
Comment / By informative / Aug. 10, 2009, 12:01 p.m.
Thanks for giving more information- it is good to hear about an issue previously reported but not in enough detail.
Comment / By Copernicus Jones / Aug. 12, 2009, 9:28 a.m.
details are the best things about NCJ
Comment / By Roger / Aug. 15, 2009, 5:29 p.m.
One of the current nurses there, I’ve know her entire life. She told me things that were going on that aren’t even mentioned in the article. I believe that those fired should back off and accept what they received as punishment rather than make the hospital air ALL of the dirty laundry they could bring to bear.
Comment / By Willy Harris / Aug. 19, 2009, 10:31 a.m.
Having been a patient at St.Joseph ICU in the recent past,as well as having several close relatives and friends in there, I have always been impressed with the compassion & professional care that we all recieved. As my wife works at this hospital I suppose I can be considered biased. Well, as my life has been saved not once,but twice at St.Joe I can honestly say that I have the utmost respect for this organization and the way they take care of any and all problems that occur. These nurses that were fired evidently have what I consider a very skewed view of how they think things should be run and if it were up to them,they would “liven up the dungeon”. I really have to take issue with the comments that the anonymous nurse made and I hope he does not get another job in ANY hospital after what they alledgedly did here. If this person really was a “professional” this would not have occured at all. I also feel that all of these five nurses should be exposed if these allegations are true and even tried in court because it sounds like a criminal case if ever there was one.
Comment / By Watcher / Aug. 19, 2009, 7:18 p.m.
Right to the point Willy Harris.
Have they been turned to the California Board of Registered Nurses and the District Attorney? This kind of “screwing around”, and yes that was allegedly going on too, is not acceptable in any work place, let alone in the place where the most critically ill patients are housed. Kudos to St. Joe’s for ousting them and brick-bats to St. Joe’s if they just “passed” them off to some other hospital, like the church passes off pedifile priests to other parishes.
Comment / By Susan / Oct. 29, 2009, 12:05 p.m.
oh wow. It’s clique!