(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fired caregiver who helped patient call 911 suffers a legal setback • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1] ['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- April'] Date: 2024-04-03 A caregiver who claims she was fired from an Iowa nursing home for helping an injured resident call 911 has a suffered a legal setback in her lawsuit against her former employer. Kandus Jellison is suing Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, one of Iowa’s largest nursing home chains, in Polk County District Court. Jellison had worked at one of the chain’s nursing homes, Oakwood Specialty Care in Albia, since February 2021. She was fired in June 2022 after she allegedly intervened on behalf of a resident who was refused hospital care by helping the man call 911. Jellison then filed suit against Care Initiatives, in part for violating the Iowa law that bars employers from taking action against workers for reporting dependent adult abuse or assisting with an abuse-related complaint or investigation. Care Initiatives responded with a motion to dismiss that element of Jellison’s case, arguing that while it’s a crime for a company to retaliate against workers who assist with abuse investigations, the Iowa Legislature didn’t intend for workers to use such a violation as the basis for a civil lawsuit. The company noted that while violating the retaliation law is clearly a simple misdemeanor, the statute provides no civil remedies for such a violation. Polk County District Court Judge Paul D. Scott agreed with Care Initiatives’ interpretation of the law and dismissed that element of Jellison’s case. In doing so, however, Scott noted that a separate law tied to health care professionals who are mandatory reporters of abuse is crafted differently. That law specifically states that a mandatory reporter who knowingly “interferes with” someone else’s efforts to report abuse can be held liable in civil court. Care Initiatives had also sought dismissal of Jellison’s claim of emotional distress, arguing that the company’s alleged actions, even if true, “do not rise to the level of outrageous” that Iowa law demands. “While (Jellison) depicts a heated, even combative, conflict between an employee and her supervisors, this workplace dispute over the best approach for providing care to a facility resident comes nowhere close to the high and demanding standard for outrageous conduct,” the company told the court. Jellison, the company said, “merely describes a contentious workplace argument that resulted in a call to police.” Scott disagreed with the company’s assessment of the situation and let stand Jellison’s claim of emotional distress. Care Initiatives did not challenge a third element of the lawsuit alleging wrongful termination that violated public policy interests by hindering Jellison’s efforts to advocate for an injured resident. State cited Oakwood for its actions According to Jellison’s lawsuit, an alert sounded at Oakwood on the morning of June 22, 2022, signaling an emergency and that all available nurses were needed. Jellison and others went to room of a male resident, along with Olivia Oshel, the director of nursing. The resident, who suffers from a bone density disorder, had fallen from his wheelchair and told Jellison that he had felt several pops in his shoulder which led him to believe he had broken something, according to the lawsuit. The man allegedly told everyone present he wanted to go to the hospital. One of the workers told the man she’d get to work on that immediately, but Oshel allegedly stopped her and said they’d treat the resident in-house first, the lawsuit claims. Jellison’s lawsuit claims she advised Oshel that if the man was asking to go to the hospital, he had the right to go, but Oshel balked. About two hours later, at 11:45 a.m., Jellison overheard the man crying in his room and calling out to her. He allegedly told Jellison he didn’t want to keep waiting a mobile X-ray unit and wanted to be taken to the hospital immediately as he was in excruciating pain, the lawsuit states. Jellison’s lawsuit says she told him he had a right to go to the hospital and then helped him to the nurse’s station to call for an ambulance. A nurse there allegedly told Jellison that Oshel should be consulted first. The lawsuit claims Oshel reiterated that a mobile X-ray would have to be done before an ambulance was summoned. Jellison allegedly protested and advised the resident to go to his room, dial 911, and ask for an ambulance. The lawsuit alleges that Oshel then screamed at Jellison, saying, “Get the f— out of my building until you can do your f—ing job right.” Jellison alleges she later phoned the business office manager to ask for the number of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, which regulates Iowa care facilities, and the corporate office of Care Initiatives. She was subsequently fired. State records indicate DIAL investigated the matter and substantiated Jellison’s complaint against Oakwood. The state inspectors who investigated the incident at Oakwood reported that after the resident insisted on going to the hospital, Oshel had yelled at the staff from her office, saying, “We are not sending him to the hospital.” One employee told inspectors Oshel had cursed at Jellison or other workers, adding that Oshel “was angry with us (and) we were just trying to get him help.” A licensed practical nurse allegedly told inspectors Oshel was “yelling at everyone right in front of the residents,” and wouldn’t let any of the staff call 911. The state agency cited Oakwood for failing to provide adequate nursing supervision and 13 other regulatory violations. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed a $95,761 penalty against the home, which was in addition to a $115,016 penalty imposed earlier in the year for other violations. Care Initiatives and Oakwood have yet to file a response to the lawsuit and are seeking a protective order to keep confidential any “documents and information that are confidential, proprietary, or otherwise not appropriate for public dissemination.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/04/03/fired-caregiver-who-helped-patient-call-911-suffers-a-legal-setback/ Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/