(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced his office will litigate administrative hearings for the 25 nurses cited today by the Ohio Board of Nursing for their role in administering excessively high doses of fentanyl and other drugs for critically ill or near end-of-life patients of the Mount Carmel Health System.
Families of victims have filed more than two dozen wrongful death lawsuits against Dr. William Husel and Mount Carmel in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Husel, other physicians, nurses, and pharmacists have been terminated or removed from patient care as a result of these allegations. The Ohio Board of Nursing alleges these 25 nurses violated the Nurse Practice Act by failing to question Husel’s orders.
“Nurses are professionals who have a duty to exercise their best judgment, and tens of thousands of them do, every single day,” Attorney General Yost said. “These nurses didn’t. They should have questioned the orders to administer such a high dose of pain killers.”
The administrative hearings are not criminal proceedings; however, a nurse could potentially lose his or her license to be a nurse as a result of these hearings.
The Ohio Board of Nursing is responsible for regulating more than 290,000 licenses and certificates. Ohio Revised Code requires the board to investigate evidence that appears to show that a person has violated any provision of law or rules regulating the practice of nursing. The law and rules are Chapter 4723, Ohio Revised Code, and 4723, Ohio Administrative Code.
On Jan. 24, Yost called for the State Medical Board of Ohio to immediately suspend Husel’s license to practice medicine in Ohio. That board summarily suspended Husel’s license the following day.