NY nurse discipline blasted in new investigative report

New York legislators are taking heed after a ProPublica investigative report revealed startling ineffectiveness in the oversight of nurses.

According to an April 26 report published by ProPublica, Deborah Glick, the chair of the legislative Committee on Higher Education, is conducting a probe in order to determine the appropriate measures for better oversight of nurses.

The April 7 investigative report revealed that New York is behind other states in vetting nurses have been deemed incompetent or have committed crimes.

Part of the problem is that the state’s agencies in charged of disciplining nurses either delay addressing cases or simply decline to impose discipline. For example, the report highlights several instances of nurses who were charged with serious crimes, such as selling prescription drugs, yet kept an active license while on trial for their crimes.

In 2014, New York’s Office of the Professions disciplined just 350 nurses (1 in 1,090), whereas Ohio, Texas, and California disciplined on average 1 in 215 nurses.

Read the full investigative report here.