Outrage: Nurse Gets Pink Slip During Patient Procedure

As companies try to reduce costs during the economic slump, many have resorted to layoffs—an unpleasant but necessary move for survival. But for one Wisconsin health care provider, cutting staff has been a particularly messy affair.

At Dean Health System in Madison, a longtime manager recently laid off a registered nurse who was in the middle of assisting with an outpatient procedure. The nurse was one of 90 employees among the system’s 4,500 workers who were terminated in April.

“Clearly, there was an error in judgment on the part of the manager conducting the layoff,” Paul Pitas, director of corporate communications for Dean Health System, said in a statement.

While the patient’s minor procedure at the system’s West Clinic in Madison went as planned, Pitas says, removing the nurse from her duties to lay her off violated established patient care procedures.

The action has appalled some patients and workers’ rights groups. Paula Brantner, executive director for the Washington-based nonprofit Workplace Fairness, calls the timing of the layoff “outrageous.”

“Layoffs do not give companies license to violate policies,” Brantner says. “I would think that, especially in a health setting—in this particular workplace—patient care is tantamount.”

Dean Health, which provides health care and insurance services throughout the Madison area, has not identified the manager, nurse or patient involved. But they describe the manager—“an otherwise good employee with more than 30 years of nursing experience who made a regrettable decision”—as extremely remorseful about the incident.

The company’s acknowledgement of the manager’s error may not be enough to make the incident go away quietly. The State of Wisconsin’s Department of Regulation and Licensing is looking into the matter.

David Carlson, department spokesman, says authorities will determine whether any employee licensed by the state acted improperly. If so, says Carlson, the department will hold an investigation to determine what further action is necessary.

Angela Bryant Starke is a writer in Knoxville, Tenn.