Healthcare Compliance Perspective – Nurse Faces Charge:
The Compliance Officer should review with the HR Manager the healthcare provider’s Policies and Procedures to ensure that the provider is securing proof of valid, up-to-date licensure and/or certification for employees requiring such licensure or certification. HR, Hiring Supervisors and Licensed/Certified Staff should receive education regarding their role in ensuring that required credentials are valid and up-to-date and the consequences for failure to report expired credentials. The Compliance Officer should insure that an audit is performed by HR periodically to verify the status of required credentials for staff and should follow-up on timely investigations when doubt or questions about true identity or authenticity of documents arise.
A suspicious husband tried unsuccessfully to check the state’s nursing license database for the nurse who was developing his wife’s care plan. When he did not find her name listed, he asked the nurse directly for her nursing license number and she did not provide it. Although he received assurances from the center’s parent company that all of their employees were licensed, the husband was not satisfied and filed a complaint with the state’s Board of Nursing. He was contacted and told that the nurse in question’s lawyer would respond to his complaint and that did not occur.
An investigator with the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) 10 months after the complaint was filed, finally made contact with the nurse after multiple attempts. The report he issued afterward said that the nurse had written and advised that all questions would have to go through her attorney; but, when asked for contact information on her attorney, she stopped communicating.
Since Colorado was a participant in a multi-state agreement allowing nursing licenses to be transferred among those states. The investigator stopped his investigation after he received a verification report that the nurse in question was licensed in Texas under another name.
After the suspected nurse got a position in another center, investigators learned she had stolen a licensed nurse’s identity and was working under her license.
In 2018, DORA issued a “Referral to Law Enforcement for Unlicensed Practice” regarding the nurse. One of the police departments did an investigation and then filed charges after receiving the DORA notification. These charges include “a felony charge for criminal impersonation, a misdemeanor charge for the unauthorized practice of nursing, and a felony for distribution of a controlled substance (because she allegedly handled narcotics for patients as part of her duties as a nurse).” However, court records indicate the unlicensed nurse has not yet been arrested.
Another Sheriff’s Office said its investigation is ongoing and charges are expected.
