Wrongful Termination?

2753190 · March 2003

As a Home Health care agency, all of our employees work
in private homes or in facilities that we contract nursing
services with. We recently had an employee who arrived at
one of these facilities smelling like she had been drinking
alcohol prior to going to work. Also, while at the facility,
she left a med room unlocked, creating an unsafe situation.
This was reported by an employee at the facility, we not did
witness this. We do not have proper documentation (yet) from
the person who witnessed this incident. We placed this
employee on suspension until we investigate the incident
further. I feel with the proper documentation from the
witness that we can terminate this employee. However, without
the documentation, we cannot terminate as this is essentially
second-hand knowledge. Is this correct?

MsLady · March 2003

If you terminate without documention, I would expect UE claim and or lawsuit

Kari

Gillian · March 2003

You need to follow the sequence. Get the documentation from the employee, ask the employee if there are other witnesses and talk to them if there are, then ask the suspended employee for their side of the story. If the suspended employee denies it, then you make your decision based upon who has the most credibility. Witnesses provide credibility, provided that they are credible themselves.

Don D · March 2003

I would say a full and complete investigation in needed in order for you to establish a good feel for how you should move forward, if at all. It may depend on who smelled the alcohol, who was a witness to that, the level of training of those persons, the company's policy regarding that, etc. Plus with the he-said-she-said scenario, a charge nurse or higher should complete a detailed investigation of the unlocked med room along with getting the signed statements of any who knew first hand what happened. It could have been anybody. What's the key control policy? Is someone setting her up? Proceed with caution. Don't make up your mind that termination is the objective of your investigation. Let it roll out and then come back and tell us how it went. x:-)

Nat · March 2003

I also work in the health care field. Do you have a substance abuse policy? It seems as though someone at your company should have been notified immediately if there was a question about this persons sobriety. Was this person given the opportunity to have an alcohol test? Our policy reads that if there is suspicion ask the employee to go take the test. If it is positive, we offer them a last chance agreement to seek treatment. If they seek treatment we don't terminate. We get updated reports from whatever program to make sure they are getting treatment. We must have a report from the program stating that the employee has completed program and can return to work. If they refuse to take the test, they are terminated. Have had employees do both. In my opinion, it will be hard for you take action against this employee for the alleged alcohol breath, even with documentation from the "witness" with the exception of asking the person if they had been drinking. You need a statement from the accused as well. Also, certain illnesses can cause ones breath to smell of alcohol such as when a diabetic has low blood sugar.

I would definitely address leaving the med room door open with this employee which may need to be a separate issue unless you can definitley relate the two. If the person has been counseled or warned before re: med room door you could take the next action as your policies allow - that's a pretty serious offense.

Probably too much info - but this is how I would handle.

Wrongful Termination?

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