Quality Assurance: Nurses Not Entitled To Union Representation.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
September 2017
The hospital has a separate quality assurance committee specifically for its nurses, to investigate reports of possible violations of nursing standards and report to the state board. Two nurses who were subjects of a committee investigation were invited to appear before the committee if they wanted to give their sides of the stories.
The hospital denied the nurses’ request to bring along a union representative when they chose to go before the committee. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that was not an unfair labor practice. The committee is not a disciplinary body. It only investigates and, if the committee determines it is called for, reports to the state board.
The Court did rule in the nurses’ favor on the separate issue of the hospital’s rule intended to maintain the confidentiality of committee proceedings which prohibited nurses from discussing incidents under committee investigation with a union representative. That rule is an unfair labor practice.
Midwest v. NLRB, __ F. 3d __, 2017 WL 3568290 (D.C. Cir., August 18, 2017).More from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/quality-assurance-confidentiality.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/quality-review-privilege.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/quality-control.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/quality-review-patient-lawsuit.htm