FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2019 file photo, the main entrance to Mount Carmel West Hospital is shown in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio hospital system where an intensive-care doctor is accused of ordering painkiller overdoses for dozens of patients says it has put more employees on leave and changed key leaders at the hospital where nearly all those deaths occurred. Mount Carmel Health System said Wednesday, March 13 that 48 nurses and pharmacists under review have been reported to regulatory boards. It says 30 are on leave, and 18 no longer work there. The doctor was fired in December. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh Huggins, File)
March 14, 2019 - 10:18 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio officials are pursuing potential discipline against 25 nurses accused of failing to question an intensive-care doctor's orders for excessive doses of painkillers given to dozens of hospital patients who then died.
Attorney General Dave Yost says the nurses in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System should have questioned orders to administer outsize dosages.
Ohio's Board of Nursing says the nurses have a right to administrative hearings before potential action against their licenses.
Mount Carmel says employees who were part of administering medication for affected patients have been removed from patient care. It says 48 nurses and pharmacists under review were reported to their respective boards.
Some are defendants in wrongful-death lawsuits filed against Mount Carmel and the doctor, William Husel (HYOO'-suhl). He was fired and is under investigation.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019