A Letter of Complaint to the Texas Board of Nursing

Dear Ms. Patricia Vianes-Cabrera My name is (redacted) and my license number is (redacted). The intent of this letter is to report misconduct of several staff members of the Texas Board of Nursing and of a board attorney (s). I recently signed a board disciplinary order settlement with the board after nearly two years of being held prisoner in limbo. The reason for my report now is not to attempt to effect any change in my orders. Instead I believe there was egregious mishandling of my case from the Investigator (redacted) to the Director of Enforcement to attorney (redacted)The gross misconduct of these persons lead to a unfair result in my case and much worse in the allowance of another nurse to continue to practice as a threat to the public. The evidence in my case included that my Pyxis log in was not only left open (my error), but was kept open by someone else for six minutes past the automatic default time out of one minute. This indicated nefarious activity of another. The evidence is not disputable regarding this fact. Further, the board admits documentation existed which placed me at the nurses station at the time Ketamine was diverted from the Pyxis in the medication room. LB and Mr. AD theorized without proving such a theory, that I could have changed the time of my documentation. This was not true as the EMR MedHost would have shown a time stamp if I had changed the time. LB refused to first, contact MedHost to determine this fact and second, refused to interview the former Director of Nursing for the ER who was an expert super user for MedHost. This witness was available to testify in affidavit format that if I had changed the time there would indeed have been a documented time stamp created, which there was not. Most egregiously (LB) was negligent in her duties to subpoena in a timely manner an exculpatory video that would have exonerated me and proven the real wrong doer. (LB) was repeatedly asked by me then my attorney from the first week of the investigation to obtain this video. She carelessly delayed for eight months in subpoening the exculpatory video. She then requested the wrong video and refused to correct this error. By the time the camera surveillance footage was finally requested the hospital was able to claim too much time had passed and the footage was no longer available. Of interst is this was an untrue claim by the hospital as the video is saved to a hard drive and cannot be taped over or destroyed. LB was unconcerned that the hospital had replied to a subpoena with a false statement. At an informal hearing chaired by Kathy Thomas RN, MSN the panel voted to dismiss the Ketamine charges. Mr.D later, apparently unilaterally decided to disregard this recommendation. When I requested of LB as to what he based this on and why he had directed to pursue the Ketamine charges LB told me that AD did not understand the records or how to interpret them to establish if my log in was left open. At my informal hearing RN members of the panel demonstrated how the Pyxis records showed my log in had been kept open. AD being a non-nurse, was negligent in failing to obtain consultation from Texas Board of Nursing staff RNs familiar with Pyxis who could have interpreted the records. LB also not a nurse, told me she too could not tell how to determine if my log in was left open. Mr. V from the legal department was to later document in an email that the board was not contesting that my log in was left open. I was forced to sign a settlement though I wanted to proceed to a SOAH trial. I had a SOAH date docketed. I however, had a severe flare of my MS and had lost the ability to speak. I requested a continuance two weeks before my trial date, which was denied by the Texas Board of Nursing attorney, Mr V in his stating in an email he would not agree to a continuance. I was denied due process of law in several violations of due process clauses by the Texas Board of Nursing. I was denied the benefit of exculpatory evidence and I was railroaded into signing a settlement. Since my experience I have been made aware of frequent, similar conduct by the Texas nursing board. In my case the board failed in its mission to protect the public in that they "gave a pass" to the real wrong doer who more likely than not will repeat the same conduct. The evidence actually well demonstrated who was more likely than not to have been the person who misappropriated Ketamine, a date rape drug. There persists a very real threat to the public because of the board and legal department's reckless and negligent conduct. Please respond to me in addressing each specific complaint I have made. I look forward to your response.