Beau BermanCBS 7 Newsbberman@cbs7.com
April 20, 2010
Kermit, Texas -Winkler County Memorial Hospital’s decision to fire two nurses in 2009 is going to cost them, in the form of a $15,850 fine assessed by the State Department of Health Services.
The nurses’ termination is listed as a violation in a state report obtained by CBS 7 News. Now, one board member is speaking out, claiming this fine could have been prevented.
I don’t have any clue as to what a usual state fine for such a ‘violation’, so I don’t know if this is a big or little number in those circumstances.
Read the article for the comments of one board member (who’s apparently swimming upstream on this board if he can’t get any seconds on his motions), it’s an interesting look inside hospital politics, small-town or not.
HT: reader Glen
It was noted in the article that the nurses are each to receive $650 for their termination, but it also mentions a doctor that sutured a piece of rubber to a patient which cost (who?)$16,000. Is that $16,000 being paid to the nurses, or was it a payout from a malpractice suite? Either way, it sounds like there was some bad decision making going on at WCMH.
The worst thing about this whole stupid case is that the Sheriff arrested those nurses for complaining to the State Medical Board and the DA tried to prosecute them.
I think before this all shakes out, that hospital may end up with a couple former nurses as the new owners.
The monetary aspects are chickenfeed, and sound like the proverbial slap on the wrist.
“It was noted in the article that the nurses are each to receive $650 for their termination”
I think that’s the fine by the state, I don’t think it goes to the nurses. They still have private civil cases they can pursue.
I used to live in Texas, so I’ve got this mental picture of the hospital’s board of directors: white, male, with their brains hanging over their belts. And I bet they all go to a Christian church every Sunday.