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WAS NURSE WITH MS FIT TO WORK? VA SAID NO
--
"I was just wanting them to leave me alone.
I wanted them to let me do my job."
For more articles about the VA by William
Levesque, use the VA Watchdog search engine... click here...
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Story here...
http://www.tampabay.com
/news/military/veterans/article945585.ece
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
-------------------------
Was nurse with MS fit to work? VA said no
By William R. Levesque
Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG — Patricia A. Price's supervisors said they watched in
sadness as multiple sclerosis eroded the registered nurse's job
performance.
Lapses in memory. Mistakes. Confusion.
Price disputed that, insisting she was just fatigued and could still do
her job at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center.
When Bay Pines disagreed, Price filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission. Two weeks ago, a judge ruled against
her claim of discrimination.
"I really can't believe they're doing this to me," said Price, 50.
What came to pass during 2007 in one of the nation's busiest veterans
hospitals is the complicated story of one nurse's fight to save her career
and the hospital that says her disease endangered patient safety.
The case is documented in the dry language of employment law and the
Byzantine rules of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
But like any workplace dispute, the truth is never as straightforward as a
lawyer's brief. It's wrapped in emotion. It can emerge without obvious
villains.
 And
often, it pleases no one.
• • •
The VA hired Price to work at Bay Pines in January 2005 after she spent
over 13 years in the Army. She worked in the Congestive Heart Failure
Clinic.
She loved the work. And the enthusiasm showed in her performance
evaluations. Her supervisors praised her. On Jan. 31, 2007, her boss rated
her "high satisfactory," the second-highest rating on an evaluation scale.
Within months, Price became concerned by persistent fatigue and weight
loss. She visited a doctor. The news stunned her.
She suffered from MS.
MS is a neurological disease whose symptoms vary greatly. It's incurable,
though those who suffer from it typically live normal life spans.
It can cause fatigue, muscle spasms, speech problems, difficulty with
balance, pain and restrictions in movement.
And in up to 60 percent of MS cases, cognitive problems of varying degree
occur, from memory issues to the processing speed of the brain.
Legions of Americans function normally with MS; many of their co-workers
are unaware they suffer from the disease. Others aren't so lucky.
Price said she told her supervisors at Bay Pines that she had MS.
"Bay Pines was okay about it," Price said. "It was as if I were telling
friends. They offered support."
In the spring of 2007, Price said that changed.
Price didn't want to "float," or move around the hospital, treating
patients. A doctor had told her to avoid infection, which might worsen her
MS. Moving around the hospital would expose her to more germs than
necessary, she said.
"Ms. Price needs reasonable accommodation to prevent exacerbation of her
MS," said a doctor's note Price gave to her boss.
 Federal
law requires employers to make accommodations to eligible workers unless
doing so puts others at risk or poses an undue economic burden.
Bay Pines rejected an accommodation for Price.
A nurse supervisor wrote in a memo that Price's request that she not float
"is not acceptable to me as all my staff float as needed to assure timely
and safe patient care."
The supervisor said in her opinion Price did not meet the definition of a
"qualified individual with a disability" because her problems were
"cognitive in nature" and make her unable to work as an RN.
A note in Price's personnel file concluded that a transfer to another
nursing position wasn't possible "due to the severity" of Price's MS.
Price was furious. She acknowledged that her MS caused her depression and
mental lapses at its worst. But MS is typified by periods of remission
when the disease's symptoms lessen.
And she insisted that her MS didn't cause her cognitive problems. "I was
fully capable of performing my duties," she said.
Her medical records in this same time frame show that Price complained to
her doctors about fatigue and difficulty concentrating. A July 2007
physician's note said, Price "is having difficulty accepting her medical
condition and its limitations."
Price, however, said she was under stress from supervisors concerned about
her MS, something that worsened her concentration.
Price's supervisors, meantime, told her she had made several mistakes in
the job and they were concerned. They ultimately pulled her from having
any contact with patients.
Once an accommodation was refused, Price filed a complaint with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.
That, said Price, angered the VA and resulted in things really falling
apart with her job.
Not long afterward, Bay Pines insisted that Price be given a
"fit-for-duty" physical. A neurologist examined her and said she could not
perform all the essential duties of a nurse.
"I was just wanting them to leave me alone," Price said. "I wanted them to
let me do my job."
Price said she had investigated a disability retirement and filled out
paperwork for one. But she said she stopped the process, deciding she
would fight to save her job.
For a time, Bay Pines allowed her to work at jobs that would accommodate
her condition.
But Bay Pines, she said, finally forced her to accept the disability
retirement in early November 2007. It provides her up to $20,000 annually,
or 40 percent of her full salary.
Price, a single mother of three whose son is in the Army and was recently
sent to Iraq, said she can barely subsist on the money.
John Pickens, a regional spokesman for the VA, denied that the agency
forced her to retire and said others at Bay Pines with less-severe MS work
at the hospital.
"We basically watched this disease take over her," Lawrence Diehl, chief
nurse of primary care at Bay Pines, testified as part of Price's
discrimination case. "And it's been very tough to watch. ... Nurses can't
be cognitively impaired and take care of patients."
Diehl didn't think Price had come to terms with her MS.
"I don't believe she fully accepted her diagnosis," he said. "And I think
she's had a real tough time. We're just hoping for the best for her."
Price said her bosses are exaggerating her problems and just tried to get
rid of someone making waves. She still hoped to work as an RN.
"They have no compassion," Price said. "They don't care. I know I can't
get my job back. But I don't want them to do this to somebody else. This
isn't fair."
William R. Levesque can be reached at (813) 269-5306 or
levesque@sptimes.com.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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