Every week we plan to select a topic or story of interest to our readers. We appreciate your comments and feed back. By reason of our readership on both sides of the wall, this blog will for the most part use screen names only. We are domiciled in the state of CT, and interesting happenings at one of their facilities suggested we write about them in our first attempt.
The best thing about the CT Department of Corrections is its new acting Commissioner, Brian Murphy. Commissioner Murphy has worked his way up the ranks from Correction Officer to Commissioner. Inmates respect his no nonsense but fair treatment and reasonable policies. Staff members we are told appreciate the fact he’s been in the trenches with them and proven himself more than able at every facet of the job. The only sad part about Murphy’s tenure is that it won’t last. He’s acting Commissioner, and only staying long enough for a new Commissioner to be selected. When he finally decides to call it a day Commissioner Murphy will be sorely missed.
Given Commissioner Murphy’s well known b.s. intolerance level, one can only wonder whether there is some connection between Murphy taking the reigns and the following story about a long over due personnel change.
The CT Department of Corrections, and CMHC finally did something right with respect to inmate health care at one of their large facilities. It was long, long over due, but late than never….Nursing Supervisor PW has been tossed out of the prison where she ran the Medical Department as her own private fiefdom for many years. The sign outside her door said it all, “Queen Bee.“ That sign was permitted to remain on the wall outside her office door by DOC Officials for years.
Countless numbers of inmates suffered at Ms. P’s hands, and her staff for the most part both feared and disliked her. The fact is, she smelled…both literally and figuratively. An occasional bath would not have hurt her. Ms P obviously has friends way up on high, or she would have been long gone. One need look no further than the following references to get the picture, but there certainly is more.
N Page 1 of CERTIFIED MAIL – RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED NO. _ STATE … <http://www.dir.ct.gov/dph/hcquality/Physician/010-RN/010-E46930/19910827010042.pdf>
FIC1990-435.htm <http://www.state.ct.us/FOI/1991FD/19910814/FIC1990-435.htm>
Aug 14, 1991 … a. those indicating the dollar amount of overtime paid from January … of overtime
May of us wonder how Ms P survived this incident, and another. On that occasion it was alleged she acted improperly with respect to her personal overtime. A figure of almost $175,000.00 in earnings was mentioned for Ms. P. Quite a haul. That incident caught some minimal media attention, yet she wasn’t terminated. Rather, she was “hidden” in another facility and brought back when things cooled down. Ms. P is allegedly a master at inventing incidents to bolster her own worth and promote her favorite cause, “Ms. P‘s job security. She kept the medical department in a state of perpetual chaos, allegedly for her own nefarious purposes. In one instance, she allegedly invented a story about a 22 year veteran Nurse that lead to the Nurse’s forced retirement. In other instances, she allegedly altered records and facts to support her own position. As seen above, she was good at covering up, but not perfect. She got caught. At the end of the day however, any inmate who became embroiled in a tiff with Ms. P found himself in cuffs and leg irons and on the next bus to Hartford. For the most part she didn’t treat staff much different, except maybe for a few of her long time cronies.
The unfortunate part of the story is that they didn’t and can’t get rid of her. They can shift her around as they’ve done, but she wont leave the system she’s allegedly abused for years, and “they” are afraid to do anything about her.
The good news is that P’s replacement As Nursing Supervisor, Mr. S is a really excellent Nurse, a decent human being, and we’d guess a good leader. Mr. S will get the respect of inmates and staff alike because he’s earned it, and not because he demands it. Nurses from up high and on down (perhaps especially from on high) will be rooting for his success, and doing all they can to assist him in meeting his objectives for the Department. It is likely this great move by the Department of Corrections will result in a significantly increased quality, and quantity of inmate health care delivery, and at a decreased cost to the tax payers, by reason of the Ms. P chaos factor having been eliminated.
The facility about which we write is a large institution. The health care delivery situation at that facility has been kind of up down for years. Old time Nurses, ala JF protected their areas and bullied some of the newer and more competent people who they believed posed a threat to them. Apart from PW a major part of the of the problem was the quality of the on site administration. For some time there was an Hospital Administrator running the whole shooting match…a health care facility for then over 2,400 inmates and his claim to work history fame is that he is a Dental Technician. Go figure.