As a teenager, I worked in a hospital as a nurse’s aide and I have to admit that I didn’t see a lot of unethical stuff going on, but I also know for a fact that sometimes people were charged too frequently for some supplies. We were supposed to keep close track of anything extra we took to a patient’s room and mark it in their charts, but some nurse’s aides waited until the last minute and forgot who the delivered supplies to. Then they would just mark down supplies randomly on patient charts. This kind of practice is why you should check your medical bills carefully. However, another way hospitals and doctors make money is by running unnecessary tests and procedures if you have insurance that they know pays quickly and easily. Keep this in mind and get a second opinion. The story below illustrates this perfectly.
My mom has been a nurse for almost a decade now. Eight of those years she worked at the same hospital on one of the busiest floors to work on until she finally had enough of the poor management.
As I said, Mom worked on what was probably the busiest floor in the whole hospital. This particular floor is severely understaffed and many times there were only three or four nurses working, each one having to care for 10 or 11 patients each (sometimes even more). Lots of times it would be pretty much impossible to get everything done in a 12-hour shift when you have to pass meds, tend to, and chart for that many patients.
My mom is a GREAT nurse. She is extremely smart, a hard worker, and she really does love her job. Usually, she would be the first nurse to get done with all of her work and then help other nurses with their workload so everyone could leave on time. Her co-workers there loved her like no one’s business. This kind of work ethic landed her a position as a charge nurse.
As a charge nurse, it was her job to see to it that all (or most) of the paperwork is done properly and faxed, that nurses were getting their charts in on time and passing meds when need be. It was her job to interact with the doctors and fill orders and direct in case of an emergency. Now, at this particular hospital, there are a lot of Residents who are fresh from med-school and have very little experience in a real hospital setting. Sometimes they would give orders that were unnecessary or not the best solution for the health of a patient.
Mom – being so respected – would oftentimes coax the doctors into changing their orders to something more suitable as she has a lot of real work experience. But then, some doctors would disagree and tell the nurses to go on ahead with his instruction. Then, when something goes wrong the blame would go on Mom and there was really nothing she could do about it.
She finally had enough when a doctor ordered a heart catheter on a patient who was extremely drunk and in no state of mind to make decisions for himself. My mom tried everything to get the doctor to not go through with it because the man really didn’t need to have a heart catheter at all!
This doctor was all the time ordering ridiculous treatments for patients because that is how he makes his money. He convinces this drunk man to sign the surgery papers and sends him to OR where he was basically receiving an unauthorized surgery seeing as his decision making was impaired.
After that, my mom decided to start applying for jobs at other hospitals because she couldn’t stand to see any more patients being abused and mistreated by the place that is supposed to have their health in the best interest.
When she finally landed another RN position, she gave her notice and worked to the end of her term. After she received her last check they tried to tell her she was overpaid and she would have to pay back some of the money. Obviously she didn’t and was appalled at the way they were treating her after 8+ years of loyalty to this hospital.
So, she decided that she’d seen enough. Before quitting, she contacted JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) and told them about the unauthorized surgery. This is a big no-no. It is something that can make a hospital lose its accreditation and be closed down permanently.
She gave them the name of the patient, the file number, the case number, the name of the doctor and the name of all other parties involved in the surgery. She was very thorough. The day after she quit, a close friend of hers that worked the same floor said that a JCAHO rep came and did some investigating almost entirely unannounced (they do warn the hospital before they come, but never give them enough of a notice to change anything beforehand).
About a week after their initial investigation (one or two people had gone and interviewed staff and look at medical records), they came back again. This time they came with A LOT of people. They pulled EVERY SINGLE FILE to review and see if any other sketchy practices had been performed under the radar.
For every breach of HIPAA and OSHA protocol, they were fined THOUSANDS of dollars. The doctor and all staff involved in the cardiac catheter incident were fired, and the doctor lost his license and can never get it back. They threatened to close the hospital if the fines weren’t paid, which added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, the family of the man found out about the surgery and sued the hospital (spoiler: he won) and had to pay him off, too.
To this day JCAHO visits the hospital frequently to make sure no more unethical practices happen again. Don’t treat your nurses like slaves, and don’t treat your patients like commodities or it will come back and bite you in the ass.
