Behemoth Hospital, owned by the local MD Group is a 300-bed non-profit community hospital located in a mid-sized Midwestern city. –
Behemoth has several managed care contracts. It also was aprofitable home health care agency and a fifteen been nursingfacility located in a rural area 80 miles away. Behemoth has someproblems.
Half of Behemoth’s nursing staff in the nursing facility has walked off the job. One of its ten patients has a rare infectious disease with no known cure.
Thos nurses walking o t claim that the facility administrationknowingly or accidentally failed to provide adequate health and safety protections, thereby endangering other patients, the nursesand their friends and families. They contend that due to actual orpotentially unsafe conditions, they have been constructively discharged. Prior to walking off the job, the nurses had written to the Occupation, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with acopy to Behemoth, complaining about unsafe working conditions. Theyreceived a response from neither.
All were long-time employees with excellent records and fully dedicated to patient care.
What Result?