As hard as this is to believe, a nurse who worked as the corportate compliance officer and quality improvement officer  at WinklerCounty Memorial Hospital in Texas, has been arrested and charged with “misuse of official information” for reporting Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr to the Texas Medical Board last April, 2009.

The nurse, Anne Mitchell, held an administrative position at the hospital and together with the quality improvement officer reported the doctor. Charges against the second nurse were dropped.

The fact that Anne Mitchell’s job requires her to report what she saw as a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures, and the fact that she is now standing trial sends a chilling message to any medical professional that speaking out to protect patients can cost  you your job.

Hospitals and medical practices in remote rural places have a difficult time filling medical positions and so it’s not surprising that this hospital  hired Dr. Arafiles Jr, a doctor trained in the Phillipines, despite knowing that he had a restriction on his medical license related to his supervision of a weight-loss clinic. What is surprising is that the hospital fired Anne Mitchell for doing her job – that is, reporting her concerns.

Even the Texas Medical Board understands what’s at stake here and has written a scathing letter to prosecutors in response to this punitive action against Mitchell. I can only hope that the courts have more sense than the prosecutors.

To find out some of the things Dr. Arafiles Jr was reported for, you can follow this link to the New York Times.