03.09.2000

Regulators nix nurse's case
by L. Kim Tan 

Thursday, March 9, 2000

A former nurse who says he was fired for blowing the whistle on his boss lost his battle yesterday when state regulators dismissed his complaint that the supervisor was unprofessional, unethical and guilty of patient neglect.

The Board of Registration in Nursing rejected Barry Adams' complaint against Anne T. Poster, his former nursing supervisor at the now-closed Youville Health Care Center in Cambridge. The regulators said they found no evidence to support Adams' complaint after reviewing nearly 1,000 pages of documents.

Adams - who has become a cause celebre in the Massachusetts nursing community since he was fired in 1996 - said he's not finished.

Buoyed by support from nurses who packed a hearing on the case yesterday, the Boston resident said he plans to take his complaintsto Suffolk Superior Court. He maintained he was fired unfairly after complaining about what he said were unsafe staffing levels at the nursing home - conditions that might have led to a patient's overdose death.

He said regulators were wrong not to hold accountable Poster and other Youville administrators.

``My complaint was not made on wild allegations,'' he said. "It was based on pretty solid facts, but they seem to be not able to find the evidence. They kind of just skirted the evidence.''

The powerful Massachusetts Nurses Association agreed.

 ``The board did what the nursing community feared it would do,'' said David Schildmeier, spokesman for the 20,000-member organization."They totally went out of their way to support a nursing supervisor . . . at the expense of their mandate to protect public safety.''

Schildmeier, whose organization is pushing various bills to improve conditions in the health care industry, said yesterday's decision disappointed hundreds of observers across the country who see Adams as a brave whistleblower.

"He's become a national symbol for courageous nurses who stand up for patients and get punished for doing so,'' he said.

"Our concern is that this is the most well-documented case, and if they can't find the evidence here, they're never going to find any evidence in any case.''

Not so, said Theresa Bonanno, the nursing board's executive director.

"The board dismissed the complaint, and the reason is they found no evidence to support the allegations,'' she said. "The board looked at every piece of paper - every single paper was reviewed by every member.''

Bonanno said board members also considered a ruling made by the National Labor Relations Board that ordered Adams reinstated with back pay. She said that ruling was made against the nursing home, not Poster.

Poster also submitted "additional information'' not heard by the labor board that helped sway the nursing board her way, Bonanno said.

Nonetheless, the nurses association said it was not satisfied by the outcome. Schildmeier said the group will ask Gov. Paul Cellucci's staff to review the nursing board's role.