Nurses fired for sounding alarm on dangerous patient conditions at Mass. hospital, lawsuit alleges

WORCESTER, Mass. — Eight registered nurses claim they were wrongfully terminated for calling attention to dangerous patient conditions, including preventable deaths, at a Massachusetts hospital, according to a new lawsuit.

The nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association at Worcester’s St. Vincent Hospital, filed the lawsuit Thursday in Worcester Superior Court against the hospital and its owner, Dallas-based for-profit owner Tenet Healthcare, alleging they were fired for exercising their legal and professional obligation to report “unsafe and illegal conduct and conditions” that jeopardized the health and dignity of the patients under their care.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association says the suit was brought under the state’s Healthcare Whistleblower statute, which is designed to protect caregivers, including nurses from being fired or any other retaliatory action by their employer for disclosing, or threatening to disclose “to a public body an activity, policy or practice of the health care facility…that the health care provider reasonably believes is in violation of a law or rule or regulation…or in violation of professional standards of practice which the health care provider reasonably believes poses a risk to public health.”

The suit cites regulations governing nursing practice in the Commonwealth that mandate that “registered nurses bear full responsibility for the quality of nursing care he or she provides to individuals or groups,” according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The same regulations also mandate that nurses, including nurses who are managers, “shall not engage in any conduct that fails to adhere to accepted standards of nursing practice or in any behavior that is likely to have an adverse effect upon the health, safety or welfare of the public.”

The lawsuit states that the St. Vincent nurses met their legal obligations to protect their patients, while Tenet management allegedly failed to do so.

“For over a year, there have been nursing staffing shortages in many units of SVH…This has led to ED nurses caring for far too many patients than is safe, including nurses sometimes taking up to a 20-patient assignment. Patients are often left unattended in ED hallways, left to sit in their own urine and feces, and there are severe delays in triage and care,” the lawsuit states. “In addition to the ED, over the past year, there has been understaffing in various other SVH units. This has caused delays in care, the inability to timely transfer patients to the proper units, unsafe care, and patients to sit for extended periods in their own feces and urine. When the plaintiff nurses objected to providing unsafe care, SVH and Tenet fired them.”

Prior to filing the lawsuit, nurses at the hospital filed several official complaints with the Department of Public Health Division of Healthcare Quality, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Mass. Board of Registration in Nursing in response to a “growing and dire crisis” in the safety of care for patients admitted to the Worcester-based facility.

The complaints were based on more than 600 reports filed in real-time by nurses over six months. They highlighted “significant deficiencies” in staffing, hospital policies, allocation of technology, and a “deliberately punitive” management culture that is resulting in “dangerous delays” in the administration of needed medications and treatments, preventable patient falls, and other complications, including preventable patient deaths, according to Marlena Pellegrino, co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit with the MNA.

“Within those complaints, allegations include unattended patients suffering injuries from falls, a pregnant woman in labor waiting more than five hours for a C-section, and patients lying in their own bodily waste for extended periods,” the lawsuit states.

Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said in a statement, “These nurses did everything in their power and met every obligation under their license and the law to protect their patients from harm...These nurses, who we are referring to as the ‘St. Vincent 8,’ are true heroes and represent the canaries in the dark mine shaft that is for-profit healthcare. We believe they have an ironclad case and hope the court acts quickly to provide the justice they so rightfully deserve.”

The unlawful termination of the nurses represents a “brazen, however fruitless, attempt to punish and silence” the nurses, who have been engaged in an impassioned effort to alert those responsible agencies and officials of what they consider to be deplorable conditions to move Tenet to join them in providing a safe environment for patients and staff, the lawsuit further alleges.

The lawsuit also alleges that the plaintiffs also communicated their concerns to administrators in texts, emails, and personal meetings, warning them of the harm to patients and the need for improvements to ensure their safety. The complaint also relays text messages from a manager who instructed a scheduling employee to delete WhatsApp messages from nurses about unsafe staffing concerns.

Pellegrino hopes the lawsuit will lead to the reinstatement of all the nurses with back pay and restoration of all benefit and seniority rights, payment of all legal fees associated with the case, and any other relief the court deems to be appropriate.

“While we are outraged and disheartened by this assault on our professional integrity and our livelihoods, the nurses of St. Vincent Hospital stand strong with our heads held high knowing we are honoring our professional obligation to do whatever is necessary to protect the patients we have given our careers to serve,” Pellegrino said in a statement. “Ours is a righteous cause, not only for those involved in this case but for all those nurses and caregivers working today under unsafe conditions.  To remain silent is to remain complicit, and we will not be silent when the lives of our patients are at stake.”

Boston 25 News has reached out to Tenet Healthcare for a statement on today’s development.

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