Utah hospital to cops: Stay away from our nurses

Washington Post ^ | Sept 05, 2017 | Fred Barbash and Derek Hawkins

[Ken H]

The University of Utah Hospital, where a nurse was manhandled and arrested by police as she protected the legal rights of a patient, has imposed new restrictions on law enforcement, including barring officers from patient-care areas and from direct contact with nurses.

Margaret Pearce, chief nursing officer for the University of Utah hospital system, said she was “appalled” by the obfficer’s actions and has already implemented changes in hospital protocol to avoid any repetition.

She said police will no longer be permitted in patient-care areas, such as the burn unit where Wubbels was the charge nurse on the day of the incident and from emergency rooms.

In addition, officers will have to deal with “house supervisors” instead of nurses when they have a request.

[af_vet_rr]

The policy will change when the idiot donut commando is fired. I predict November.

He was fired from his ambulance job, which he had held since 1983.

The head of the ambulance company said he "violated several company policies and left a poor image of the company".

Think about that: A private company says he gave them a poor image, so the company fired him.

But the SLC PD puts him on paid leave, and the the Salt Lake Police Association is representing him to ensure that his "rights are protected and that the investigation is fair" which is ironic, because if Payne had protected the rights of the crash victim, instead of trying to violate them, we would never have heard of him or the nurse.

[Tammy8]

There is medical care in most jails. Even if the patient had been in jail the laws would still apply to having blood legally drawn, it takes more than LE wanting it done. The person/patient in question was not under arrest. If he had been under arrest LE could have gotten the blood drawn at the hospital.

Are you suggesting this patient who was a victim in a horrible car accident should have just been arrested so blood could be drawn? The LE had no probable cause to get a warrant so they should have arrested him? Really?

[Tammy8]

What needs to happen is the LEOs need to review the law and their policies with respect to obtaining medical evidence and meet with hospital legal counsel to come up with a rational policy that protects all parties.

They already had a rational policy in place that had been agreed on by both law enforcement and the hospital. When the nurse showed the policy to LE, and showed him where it said it was an agreement between his agency and the hospital is when he started losing his temper.

LE knew the law, they knew they were asking her to violate the policy of her employer, and they knew they were asking her to violate an agreement between their employer and hers. They also knew they were asking her to violate laws concerning patient care and privacy. They thought they could BS her and when that didn't work they thought they could bully her into doing what they wanted.

[af_vet_rr]

My wife is a nurse. You make a lot of assumptions about me.

Let's say your wife is on duty at a hospital, and you are off-duty and working security for that hospital and its patients and staff, including your wife.

You are in the room with her, and a cop comes in, and demands a blood draw. He has no warrant and no consent, meaning he is there illegally and is going to be violating the rights of that crash victim. This is not even for his police department, it is for another police department in another town.

Your wife, being a good and intelligent woman, and American, tells the police officer that he cannot get the blood sample he wants, because he has no warrant and no consent, and that violates the victim's rights, and it violates his own police department's policies, as well as state and federal laws. Your wife's supervisor states the same to the cop over the phone.

The cop gets very angry with your wife, and begins to manhandle her, telling her she's under arrest.

Are you going to stand idly by and let this cop manhandle your wife, all because she wouldn't comply with an illegal order? Are you going to stand there as this cop is intent on violating the rights of the crash victim?

[Tammy8]

Even if one takes a law enforcement perspective, this is crappy substandard police work because this kind of evidence would/should be thrown out.

It is worse than that, they were asking and then bullying the nurse to do something that they knew was against her employer policy and laws concerning patient care and privacy.

If she had done what they asked her to do she very likely would have lost her job, she would also have been in jeopardy of losing her nursing license. It also would have set her personally and the hospital up for a huge lawsuit they likely could not win against.

And the consequences for LE if she had done what they wanted? If the patient had a decent lawyer you are right the evidence if any would have been thrown out. The bad consequences would have fallen on the nurse under current laws. LE are usually held to be not personally responsible for things like this. Nurses are held to be personally responsible for their actions.

[Lazamataz]

That is an honorable response. I appreciate it and thank you for it. :)

[af_vet_rr]

So, for you, some self-described “rogue cops” gives you the impression that you can flippantly slander the motives and reputation of the other 99%; none of which you know or have any relationship with?

Multiple cops stood around in that hospital and did nothing as Payne roughed up a nurse because he wouldn't, or more likely couldn't, get a warrant.

Multiple cops stood around in that hospital and did nothing as Payne made it clear that he wanted to violate an innocent victim's rights.

Now it's possible that Payne's supervisor, who told him to get the blood sample without a warrant, and all of those cops standing around in the hospital doing nothing are a part of the 1% bad cops, but that is one heckuva coincidence that so many 1%ers would be gathered in one spot or giving the orders.

Plus, Payne and his supervisor seemed quite comfortable with violating the law and their police department's written policies, and Payne clearly acted as though the nurse should just submit to his will. That is not an attitude or mentality that comes out of nowhere - that was developed over time.

Next, are you going to tell us that the cop unions who protect the bad cops, and who make sure that the elected officials don't just go firing every bad cop, are only comprised of the 1% of bad cops, and that the 99% of good cops are in some other unions we never hear about?

[Oztrich Boy]

Well, it did change the first time a cop assaulted a nurse.

[Oztrich Boy]

Thank your comrades in blue.

True dat

Cops wear black now,.