Reporter: Calif. Nursing Panel Ignored Abuse Cases

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MADELEINE BRAND, host:

Here's how a story in the Los Angeles Times begins: Nurse Owen J. Murphy Jr. twisted the jaw of one patient until he screamed. He picked up another one, an elderly frail man by the shoulders, slammed him against a mattress and barked, I said stay in bed. The story was an investigation in to why abusive nurses in California were allowed to keep working even after a state oversight panel -the Board of Registered Nursing - learned what was going on. The story was published on Sunday and yesterday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fired most of the nursing board. Charles Ornstein is one of the reporters who wrote the story. He works for ProPublica, that's an independent investigative group that teams with news organizations. And Charles, if you could just describe your investigation - what were you looking into?

Mr. CHARLES ORNSTEIN (Reporter, ProPublica): We were looking into why it takes so long for the State Board of Registered Nursing to act on complaints involving, you know, egregious misconduct by nurses. What we learned was that it was, you know, multifaceted but really, in reality, the board simply wasn't pursuing the cases that really raised, you know, the hair on your neck.

BRAND: And tell us about some of those cases - what were the most egregious examples you came across?

Mr. ORNSTEIN: Well, the one you cited is the one that we used at the beginning of our story. It was a nurse who resigned from a job after he was accused of being threatening and abusive with patients. And during the two years it took the nursing board to investigate. He went to work at two additional facilities and at those hospitals he also drew complaints of being abusive to patients. And at one of them he actually faced criminal charges of doing that. But those hospitals would have no way of knowing because the Board of Registered Nursing had him listed as a clear license on their Web site.

BRAND: And he spoke with you and actually said, there's a quote in your article where he says, the nursing board is there to protect the public from me, which seems remarkable that he would actually admit that. Why did the nursing board take so long to investigate that and other cases?

Mr. ORNSTEIN: Well he spoke to my colleague, Tracy Weber. And, you know, he said by the time the board has taken action against him, he's taken anger management courses. He has learned to control his temper. He believes he's a good nurse and here the board is taking action against him. And to answer your question, you know, it really - it can't be explained. They suggested that it was other parts of the state bureaucracy. And indeed a complaint goes through a pretty labyrinthian process. From the point at which it's received until the point at which a nurse is disciplined, four different agencies touch it. But it took in California 1,254 days. And that's three years and five months for a complaint to be resolved after it was received.

BRAND: And just to be clear, this is an investigation into well, a small, very small percentage of all the nurses in California of which there are many. And not all of them are abusive.

Mr. ORNSTEIN: Absolutely, without question. There are 350,000 nurses in California. And the board disciplines, you know, only several hundred a year. So we're talking about a very small percentage. But it's important to, you know, to understand that a system that's designed to protect the public is only as strong as its weakest link. And if the system is not catching up those who perhaps may be the most dangerous or those who are chronically addicted, those who've been, you know, convicted of crimes that could put patients in harm's way. And whether that's several dozen patients or several hundred patients, you'd hate to be one of those patients if you were in the hospital or in a clinic.

BRAND: So when you presented these stories to members of the nursing board, what was their response?

Mr. ORNSTEIN: The head of the nursing board said that they take their mandate of public protection very, very seriously. She wasn't able to answer the questions about, you know, why this was allowed to keep going. What we found was a 2002 report that the board sent to the legislature, you know, said that the same investigation process was unacceptably long, and that they were taking steps to fix it. And yet it's only gotten longer since then.

BRAND: And the governor replaced most of the board. Will that make a difference?

Mr. ORNSTEIN: Well, the board is more than just the governor's appointees. There's also two members that are appointed by the legislature. But you're right. I mean the governor's action brings six of nine new members who'll be new on the board. And he has demanded that they come up with an action plan quickly. I think the proof is going to be what happens to that action plan and when you look at this a year from now, will the delays, you know, be reduced. I don't think that if all he does is change the staff of the board that's going to change everything. I think what that new board does you're going to learn a lot from that.

BRAND: Charles Ornstein is a reporter with the investigative news organization ProPublica. The article he co-wrote on abusive nurses can be found at The Los Angeles Times Web site. Charles, thank you.

Mr. ORNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

BRAND: I spoke with Charles Ornstein earlier today. And since then we have an update to his story. Today the head of the nursing board submitted her resignation.

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