Reporting Enhancement Bill Passes Senate, Awaits Assembly Action

New Jersey Nurse, Nov/Dec 2004 by Rainer, Sharon

A bill sponsored by Senator Joseph F. Vitale (D-19) which would improve reporting standards for health care professionals in light of a series of murders committed by professed killer Charles Cullen in his capacity as a nurse in several hospitals throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania was unanimously approved by the Senate in October.

NJSNA was involved from the start with the crafting of language for the bill so that patient safety was enhanced but not at the expense of nurses and their rights and privacy. Andrea Aughenbaugh, CEO of NJSNA and NJSNA lobbyists attended a series of meetings with other stakeholders to reach consensus on some of the most detailed parts of the bill. After months of intense work, NJSNA was satisfied that the concerns of staff nurses, nurse managers and patients were addressed.

"Charles Cullen shocked the health care community, not only for his wanton abuse of his position as caregiver, but also for his ability to move from employer to employer with relative anonymity, despite multiple complaints on his behavior," said Senator Vitale, Chairman of the Senate Health Committee. "Cullen's twisted definition of medical care is disturbing, but so is the systemic failure to root him out of the health care profession when it was apparent he had no place caring for vulnerable patients in the first place."

Known as the "Health Care Professional Responsibility and Reporting Enhancement Act," Senator Vitale's bill, S1804, will increase protections to allow medical care facilities to report to other facilities honest evaluations of a nurse's ability to provide direct patient care. The bill also requires greater disclosure from health care professionals and medical facilities to the State Division of Consumer Affairs when they have information regarding the incompetence or negligence of a coworker which would endanger patients, and requires criminal background checks of health care professionals who apply for licensure with the State. The bill codifies the nurse's existing duty to report.

"One of the biggest failures in the current system is that, because of the possibility of lawsuits, hospital and health care facility administrators fear coming forward to other administrators with complaints against an employee, even when those complaints are justified," said Senator Vitale. "The result is that it becomes very hard for health care employers to learn any negative information about a potential employee, and a bad record is virtually impossible to accrue unless official State action is taken against a person. We need to allow medical facility officials the whistleblower protections to report bad caregivers."

The catalyst behind the bill, killer nurse Charles Cullen, achieved infamy last December, when he was arrested for the murder of Reverend Florian J. Gall, a heart patient who was under Cullen's care as a nurse at Somerset Medical Center. At that time, it was revealed that he may have committed as many as 40 other murders in 10 medical care facilities throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey over the last two decades, but-information that may have shown a pattern of behavior was not transmitted from employer to employer because of fear of litigation.

"Cullen showcased the loopholes that allow a killer to keep killing under the guise of a caregiver, and we have to close those loopholes so that we don't allow another wolf in sheep's clothing to the detriment of vulnerable medical care recipients," said Senator Vitale. "We cannot allow dangerous individuals to exploit the weaknesses in our health care employment system in order to take the lives of others."

The bill now heads to the Assembly for consideration. Watch the NJSNA website for information about the bill in the Assembly. www.njsna.org