Greseth v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services
| Decision Date | 30 January 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-3271,89-3271 |
| Citation | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 325,573 So.2d 1004 |
| Parties | 16 Fla. L. Weekly 325 Michelle GRESETH, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
V. Donald Hilley of V. Donald Hilley, P.A., Palm Beach Gardens, for appellant.
Laurel E. Hopper, Dist. IX Legal Counsel, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
This is an appeal from an order by the Public Employees Relations Commission disciplining the appellant for negligence and willful violation of the rules of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. We reverse.
The appellant was a protective investigator with HRS in Okeechobee, Florida. In March of 1989 HRS suspended Greseth for willful violation of rules, regulations, or policies of the department. The facts as found by the assigned hearing officer are found in the hearing officer's first recommended order. The hearing officer found that a medical neglect report on a child, L.Y., born underweight and hospitalized since birth, was received on January 4, 1989 by the Okeechobee HRS office and assigned to Greseth. The report's concern was that L.Y.'s mother had not come in for training on her care. L.Y. was hospitalized in Melbourne, but the mother lived in Okeechobee. Greseth, concerned because the child could not be medically neglected if hospitalized, asked for guidance from her supervisor who told her to handle the report "as is".
Greseth continued to handle previously assigned cases that day. The next day she attended mandatory staffing and was then called out to handle a sexual abuse case of a three year old. She attempted to contact L.Y.'s mother and located L.Y.'s grandmother who called while she was investigating a sexual abuse case. L.Y.'s grandmother told her that L.Y. would not be released from the hospital for a while and that when she was, the mother and baby would both live at the grandmother's. Greseth did not contact the hospital but relied on the grandmother's information.
For the remainder of the fifth of January, Greseth handled the sexual abuse case. At one point during the afternoon Greseth reported to her supervisor her conversation with L.Y.'s grandmother and asked for advice on how to proceed. The supervisor did not respond to her inquiry. Greseth spent the sixth and seventh (a Saturday) of January investigating several abuse reports, despite being ill. On Sunday the eighth she received another abuse report but was too ill to handle it and notified her supervisor.
From Monday January 9 to January 17 Greseth was on sick leave on doctor's orders. She spoke to her supervisor during this period although they did not discuss the L.Y. case. However, her supervisor did nothing to review the files in Greseth's office during her absence.
When she returned to work on January 17, she spent the entire day in court. The next day she learned that the baby L.Y. had actually been released from the hospital on January 6. The child later died although the death was unrelated to any action or inaction on Greseth's part, or, for that matter, as a result of any neglect on the part of the mother.
The hearing officer also found that from December 23, 1988, to January 10, 1989, Greseth was the only protective investigator in a unit usually staffed by three investigators and that she had fourteen physical abuse and neglect cases to investigate between January 3-8. As a consequence she had to prioritize her cases. In the case of L.Y.'s report, Greseth relied on the initial report from the hospital, after it had been confirmed by L.Y.'s grandmother that the baby would not be released for at least two weeks. Therefore, from the information available to Greseth, the baby was not in immediate danger. Greseth intended to contact the hospital to verify the information on January 9, but became ill and was out of work for a week.
Department policies required either personal contact with L.Y. and her mother within twenty-four hours of the abuse report's receipt or to initiate an out of town inquiry if the parties were not in the vicinity. Greseth did not initiate an out of town inquiry. Department policy also required Greseth to contact the hospital and clarify the abuse report during her initial investigation. Greseth did this on January 18. It was these two rules which Greseth, an otherwise exemplary employee, was charged with violating.
The hearing officer concluded that Greseth did not willfully violate policies because she was assigned, with the Department's knowledge, to more cases than she could physically handle. Based upon the conversations with L.Y.'s grandmother that there was no immediate danger to L.Y., she classified it as a low priority case, concentrating her efforts on her other abuse cases. He also found no negligence in the way she prioritized and handled the case. Therefore he recommended sustaining her appeal from the HRS suspension.
While allegedly accepting the findings of fact made by the hearing officer, the Commission disagreed with his conclusions, finding that Greseth's case load was not too great to make a few phone calls, which it claimed would have satisfied...
To continue reading
Request your trial