In nursing care, nurse visits and a complete and accurate medical record, in a timely manner, brings positive outcomes on the health improvement of a patient. Failure to timely document with incorrect and inaccurate health information of a patient means poor outcome. This shows that accurate documentation of health information has a huge impact on a patient’s recovery. However, if an RN improperly executed such a task in nursing care, the Board may put the RN into disciplinary action with suspension or revocation of license. If this happens, it is better to seek help from an expert nurse attorney.
At the time of the initial incident, she was employed as an RN at a hospital in San Angelo, Texas, and had been in that position for four (4) months.
On or about November 21, 2019, while employed as an RN at a hospital in San Angelo, Texas, RN failed to submit nursing documentation for patients from September 22, 2019 through November 13, 2019. RN’s conduct resulted in an inaccurate medical record and was likely to injure the patients in that subsequent care givers would not have complete information on which to base their care decisions.
In response to the above incident, RN states she had forty-six (46) or more patients in her caseload and was seeing fifteen (15) or more patients a day. She states there were unreasonable work expectations to complete visits all day and chart all night. She told her Director of Nursing she would go home to finish charting. RN states when she got home, she fell asleep and slept for three (3) days due to exhaustion. RN states she went into the office on two (2) different days to complete documentation and for eleven (11) days after her resignation she was unable to log in to complete documentation and states on November 20, 2019, she received an email explaining why she was locked out. After regaining access, RN noticed a note was created under her name, however, RN states the note was not and could not have been made by her. RN states she told her Director of Nursing that if they removed the fraudulent note, then she would complete her documentation. RN states when she logged in there was a note made by another nurse, however, the fraudulent note remained. RN states she logged out and informed them that she could not participate in fraud. RN states she has never refused to document any home visit completed by her, she has only denied participating in fraudulent business practices or behavior.
The above action constitutes grounds for disciplinary action in accordance with Section 301.452(b)(10)&(13), Texas Occupations Code, and is a violation of 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.11(1)(A),(1)(B)&(1)(D) and 22 TEX. ADMIN. CODE §217.12(1)(A),(1)(B),(1)(C)&(4).
The Texas Board of Nursing then subjected the RN and her license into disciplinary action. The accusation would have been defended by an experienced and skilled Texas Nursing Law Attorney, had the RN hired one. Hiring a Texas Nursing Law Attorney for defense is applicable for any kind of accusation laid against an RN or LVN.
For more details and to schedule a confidential consultation, you must approach one of the most experienced Texas Nurse Attorney Yong J. An. He is an experienced nurse attorney who represented more than 300 nurse cases for RNs and LVNs for the past 16 years. You can call him at (832)-428-5679 to get started or to inquire for more information regarding nursing license case defenses.