The 2010s
100 Years of Texas Nursing Magazine
“Winkler County Nurses” Settle Civil Lawsuit
Texas Nursing, Summer 2010
TNA reports that registered nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle reached a $750,000 settlement to end a civil lawsuit filed after they were fired and criminally indicted for anonymously reporting a physician's unsafe practices to the Texas Medical Board. The case drew strong support from the Texas Nurses Association, which established a legal defense fund to champion the right of nurses to advocate for patient safety without fear of vindictive prosecution or retaliation.
ON AUGUST 10, THE LEGAL ORDEAL of the former "Winkler County nurses" ended with the settlement of their civil lawsuit filed in federal court against a number of Winkler County, Tex. defendants. Registered nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle—fired by the Winkler County Memorial Hospital and its hospital administrator after anonymously reporting a facility physician to the Texas Medical Board—will now share a settlement of $750,000.
The six-figure settlement is in exchange for the nurses dismissing their claims against the hospital, the county and other defendants in a lawsuit that asserted the nurses had been subjected to vindictive prosecution and denied their First Amendment rights. The suit was settled without defendants acknowledging liability.
The nurses' anonymous letter to TMB reporting a physician's standard of care, led to their employment termination and criminal indictments. It wasn't long before a firestorm of reaction followed from the national nursing community, the media and stakeholders over the potential for this incident in a small, rural Texas county to create a future chilling effect on a nurse's willingness to report unsafe care.
The nurses' anonymous letter to TMB reporting a physician's standard of care, led to their employment termination and criminal indictments.
Texas Nurses Association /American Nurses Association were the first nursing organizations to speak out strongly against the nurses' plight. TNA created the TNA Legal Defense Fund which ultimately received over $50,000 in contributions to help support the rights of every practicing nurse to advocate for patients. TNA also matched the first $5000 donated to the Fund.
Standing on the belief that no nurse should be retaliated against—intimidated, coerced, threatened, harassed, demoted, written up or fired—for advocating for a patient, TNA also sent a formal complaint to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) objecting to the Winkler County Memorial Hospital's violation of the rights of Mitchell and Galle, and all nurses, afforded under the Texas Nursing Practice Act. DSHS eventually investigated the hospital and fined it over $15,000 for violations of Texas law that relate to the licensing and regulation of general and special hospitals.
The physician reported by Mitchell and Galle, Dr. Rolando Arafiles, Jr., was due in early August to respond via written answer to a TMB complaint against him or if failing to do so, face disciplinary action including the loss of his medical license. The TMB complaint was based on the nurses' report and alleged Arafiles violated the Medical Practice Act, and cited patient harm, intentional and knowing conduct, and multiple violations of the Practice Act and Board rules. TN
