Williams v. Kaiser Permanente CA2/4

BACKGROUND

Williams is a registered nurse. She began working as a nurse at Kaiser’s Baldwin Park Medical Center in May 1999. In September 2006 she resigned from her position after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. A little more than a year later, after treatment for her cancer, she returned to work at Kaiser. When Williams first worked at Kaiser, she worked in the intensive care unit (ICU); when she returned, she worked in the step down unit (SDU).

A. Reports Are Made Regarding Williams’ Conduct On May 8, 2010, a charge nurse in the SDU, Maribeth Ramirez, contacted Martha Lopez, the Assistant Clinical Director of Medical/Surgical/Telemetry, regarding an incident involving a patient in the SDU. Lopez was called to the SDU to speak with the patient’s daughter (Julie) and her husband. Julie told Lopez that when she and her husband walked into the SDU that morning, they heard

2 someone screaming. As they got closer to Julie’s mother’s room, they realized it was her mother who was screaming. Julie went to the desk to ask for help, and was told by the secretary that the nurse assigned to her mother was busy with another patient. Julie’s husband asked a physician who was at the…