MOUNDSVILLE – A Marshall County woman alleges she resigned from employment with a Moundsville facility after she was reprimanded for reporting suspected patient abuse.
Kristina Allen filed a complaint in Marshall Circuit Court against Mound View Healthcare Inc. alleging violation of the Patient Safety Act and constructive discharge.
The suit states that the plaintiff began her employment with the defendant in January 2017. The plaintiff alleges she was working at the premises on June 23, 2017, when she heard a patient crying for help. When entering the patient's room, she alleges she found a licensed practical nurse trying to force medicine in a patient's mouth and saw that the patient had an injury on her wrist from the LPN "forcibly holding" her arm. The plaintiff alleges she reported what she had seen to the charge nurse.
The plaintiff alleges she learned that the report was falsely going to state that injury was a result of the patient's own actions and she made a good faith report to an outside agency about the incident.
The suit states the plaintiff was called to the administrative offices on July 3, 2017, to discuss the incident and was reprimanded. She alleges she was asked to change her version of events on how the patient was injured but she refused.
She alleges following this meeting, she "believed that she could not work in a residential nursing care facility where management countenanced the filing of false incident reports," and resigned, the suit states.
The plaintiff is seeking all reasonable sums due, attorney fees and court costs, and a trial by jury. The plaintiff is represented by Wray V. Voegelin and Patrick S. Cassidy of Cassidy, Cogan, Shapell and Voegelin LC in Wheeling.
The case has been assigned to Judge David Hummel Jr.
Marshall Circuit Court case number 19-C-53