Last month, five patients filed a lawsuit against WellStar Health System, which operates Cobb Hospital, saying the health care system neglected to properly monitor them in the operating room. The husbands of three of the patients joined in the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, four of the women were giving birth by Cesarean section. Serdula is accused of over-sedating them, rendering them unconscious. He then allegedly exposed himself and molested them after their babies were born and whisked away.
In a 19-page report filed with the department, National Nurses United documented 50 instances of what it described as unsafe patient care this year in all departments in the hospital. No deaths were reported.
The reports describe instances of patients not receiving medication on time, newborn infants not being fed promptly and a patient who was rushed back to the operating room after the patient had stopped breathing and suffered cardiac arrest. The union did not know whether the patient survived.
Members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association at four Caritas Christi Health Care hospitals, including St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, yesterday ratified a five-year contract that gives nearly 1,700 registered nurses pay raises and a new retirement plan.
The votes at St. Elizabeth’s, Carney, Norwood Hospital, and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton capped months of often tense bargaining with executives of Boston-based Caritas. The financially stressed Catholic hospital system is awaiting approval by Francis X. Spina, associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, of its deal to be bought by a New York private equity firm.
Watsonville nurses plan to return to work early Friday morning after three days of rallies and picketing.
More than 100 nurses and their supporters gathered at noon Thursday near the entrance of Watsonville Community Hospital for a boisterous protest against lagging contract negotiations and a lockout.
When the morning shift of Watsonville Community Hospital nurses returned Wednesday after a 24-hour strike, they learned they had been locked out by hospital administrators, and will be unable to clock back in until Friday.
In an undated, unsigned letter given to them by hospital security staff, the nurses were informed that their shifts would be covered by temporary nurses, and that they were to return to work starting Friday.
Watsonville Community Hospital representatives said they are prepared to provide uninterrupted care for patients on Tuesday as nurses begin a strike that may last for up to three days.
The California Nurses Association started the strike at the hospital Tuesday morning at about 6:30 a.m. It is unknown how long the strike will last, but hospital officials said they are prepared for the strike to last until Friday.