US Court Backs Hospital Workers Right to Talk to Media About Safety

Hospitals don't have the right – even with stated policies – to bar health care workers and staff from complaining to the media about safety issues and other problems, a U.S. Federal Appellate Court has ruled.

The case stemmed from a case brought by Karen Jo Young, an Activities Coordinator fired from her position at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in September, 2017 after she wrote a letter to her local newspaper criticizing executives.

She said there were staffing shortages and patient safety problems, but hospital management said she violated a rule about speaking to the media without clearance from the media office. She was released hours after the letter was published.

The ruling is seen as limiting hospitals from also disciplining workers and health care staffers, including nurses and doctors who speak out about equipment or supply problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It could also require revising policies barring workers from talking to the news media and posting on social media, health care union officials said, as hospital employees were muzzled from reporting even serious safety issues.

“It’s great news because I know all hospitals prefer we don’t speak with the media,” Cokie Giles, President of the Maine State Nurses Association told Kaiser Health News.

“We are careful about what we say and how we say it because we don’t want to bring the hammer down on us,” she also said.

When the pandemic broke, nurses and doctors at some hospitals complained about a lack of critical equipment in dealing with COVID-19, including shortages of professional-level masks and protective gear.

There has been bitter criticism from the workers and others who said that profit-driven hospitals care more about the bottom line than the safety of staff and patients, even during the unprecedented pandemic.

The 1st Circuit opinion was one of only a few employee speech rulings under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRB) ever issued at that level and the first in nearly 20 years, Frank LoMonte, a University of Florida law professor who heads the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information told the site.

He said it should force hospitals to “pull out their handbook and make sure it doesn’t gag employees from speaking. If you are fired for violating a ‘don’t talk to the media’ policy, you should be able to get your job back.”

The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals did not respond to the site's request to comment.

While the 1st Circuit’s opinion is binding only in four Northeastern states plus Puerto Rico, the NLRB decision carries the force of law nationwide and applies to both unionized and non-unionized employees, legal experts told the site.

The court unanimously upheld an NLRB decision in 2020 that the hospital, now known as Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital, violated Federal labor law by firing Young for engaging in protected “concerted activity.”

The NLRB said that allows workers to talk to each other about work-related issues, including safety issues, and the court agreed with the agency's finding the hospital's media policy barring contact between employees and the media was unlawful.

Hospitals and health care organizations often have policies requiring employees to clear with their media office any public comments about the workplace and restrict what they can say on social media, effectively censoring them.

Hospital officials have said this is designed to prevent the spread of inaccurate information that could lessen confidence in a facility and argued Young's letter had false and disparaging statements. But according to the court it was “not abusive,” and one false statement was not her fault.

While health care organizations have the undisputed right to prevent employees from disclosing confidential medical information about patients, or proprietary information, it didn't extend to revealing safety problems, the court said.

“Employers with a blanket ban on talking to the media need to relook at their policies,” Eric Meyer, a partner at FisherBroyles in Philadelphia who represents companies on employment law matters told the site. “If you go to the media and say, ‘There are unsafe working conditions impacting me and my colleagues,’ that’s protected concerted activity.”

The hospital’s parent company, Northern Light Health, said its news media policy, amended after Young’s firing, meets NLRB and 1st Circuit requirements and will not be further changed as it allows workers to speak to the news media related to concerted activities protected by federal law.