Florida Nurse Registry Companies Are Excluded From Liability

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — Nursing registries are businesses that provide nurses to care for elderly or disabled clients in their homes.

They perform background checks, arrange schedules, pay nurses and accept payments.

But the I-Team learned that if something goes wrong, companies aren’t liable under Florida law.

“We had the impression that they had the means”

“I had a spinal cord injury from a jet ski accident in 2002,” said Christy Corum of Orange Park, Florida.

She says the injury left her paralyzed from the chest down.

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“I’ve always had to depend on people since my injury. And you want to be able to know that you can trust the people who are there to help you,” Christy said.

Christy and her family hired a nurse from River City Home Health to help her with her daily tasks.

“We were told about this company and the fact that it was an agency, we felt they had the resources, they had the staff,” said Kenneth Corum, Christy’s father.

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The company is classified by the Florida Department of Health as Registrar of Registered Nurses.

These types of businesses refer nurses to clients, arrange their schedules, and pay the nurses.

Medicaid compensated River City Home Health for Christy’s care.

But she no longer uses the company after a terrifying incident in January.

“I have anxiety getting out of the van,” Christy said.

According to a lawsuit, Christy’s nurse left her unattended after driving her home from a doctor’s appointment.

“She untied me from the van and then went inside,” Christy said. “The ramp did not extend and I drove straight on. Falling face first with my chair on top of me.

Christy called her father, Kenneth, who rushed from a construction project he was working on across town.

“The first thing I pulled up to, I saw the wheelchair still sitting on the ground outside,” Kenneth said.

He said the wheelchair weighs about 400 pounds.

Kenneth Corum

Trailed 102 feet with a blanket

A civil complaint says the nurse failed to provide reasonable lifesaving care or alert authorities after Christy fell.

A handwritten report from the nurse said: “Christy was laughing a lot. She said she couldn’t believe she did that without looking first.

“You have a nurse on site, so that in the event of a medical event, you have assistance that constitutes qualified, licensed care,” said attorney Billy Gower, who represents Christy.

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Instead, the nurse retrieved a blanket from the patio.

“I put the blanket under Christy and pulled her into the house,” the nurse wrote.

According to the complaint, the nurse dragged her across the yard and house to her room, where she used an elevator to put Christy to bed.

“I was 102 feet from my room,” Christy said.

“Both legs were broken, left arm was fractured,” Kenneth Corum said.

The complaint said the nurse left as Christy’s condition deteriorated.

“His eyes rolled back in his head. And at that point I called 9-1-1,” Kenneth Corum said.

Christy was taken to Orange Park Medical Center.

Kenneth Corum

Kenneth said at one point his daughter stopped breathing.

Medical records show Christy suffered head trauma and spent two weeks in a coma.

“All this time they said not to expect much. It didn’t look good,” Kenneth said.

Miraculously, she escaped.

“I remember the first time I came out of a coma. They were telling me everything that happened and showing me pictures and everything, it was very surreal,” Christy said.

Christy spent six weeks in the hospital and months in rehab.

Medical bills are still coming.

“That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars. At least what we’ve gotten so far,” Gower said.

Nurse registry companies are not responsible

Gower filed a lawsuit against the nurse and River City Home Health, alleging negligence.

In response, River City Home Health’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss, saying the company was not liable since it was a nurses’ registry.

A Florida law passed in 2014 defines nurses working for nursing registries as independent contractors.

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It exempts nursing registries from the “management and liability” of these contractors.

“They should be held accountable,” Christy said.

“You can’t even have a car without insurance. So how do you run a licensed healthcare business without being responsible for what you do? » said Kenneth.

There are currently 1,173 registered nurse registries in Florida, including 178 in the Tampa Bay area.

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The I-Team identified nursing registry lawsuits in Hillsborough, Palm Beach and Broward counties.

“Effectively, those cases were dismissed after the judge determined, yes, this is a nursing registry,” Gower said.

Florida taxpayers pay the price

We emailed the owner of River City Home Health, but she did not respond.

We walked past their office, which had a locked door, no lights, and no one answered.

The judge in the Christy’s lawsuit denied River City Home Health’s motion to dismiss, so the lawsuit will continue.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Labor discovered that a Sarasota nurse registration company had “misclassified caregivers as independent contractors” in a case involving overtime pay.

Gower believes this could open the door to a different interpretation of the law, which would allow these companies to be held liable in cases where someone is injured.

In the meantime, he says we all pay the price.

“If something happens, it’s not the nursing registries that are going to pay, it’s going to be the taxpayers, it’s going to be the citizens of Florida,” Gower said.

If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email us at [email protected].