Colorado nurse was able to keep working despite abuse claims

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/colorado-nurse-able-keep-working-despite-abuse-claims-181159306.html?nhp=1

DENVER (AP) — A woman who went to the hospital with severe abdominal pain on Christmas Eve 2013 remembered feeling "out of it" after getting a dose of morphine. But as she came to, she realized her hospital gown was open and a male nurse was touching and kissing her.

The woman said she lay still, seemingly frozen. She says when she was discharged, her nurse, Thomas Mark Moore, told her "I'll find you Sweetie."

She told nobody, even when Moore sent her a Facebook friend request days later. A year and half after her discharge from Poudre Valley Hospital, she reported Moore to police in Fort Collins, an hour north of Denver.

That report in August set off an investigation that turned up eight other women who alleged that Moore, 43, had fondled, groped or kissed them at hospitals in Colorado and Nebraska over a two-year period, according to court documents.

Moore's case highlights how easy it can be for nurses who are fired or forced out of their jobs over alleged misconduct to find work elsewhere, in part because some states — Colorado is among a handful — don't require hospitals to report nursing law violations to regulators. Colorado's nursing board also doesn't have the power to conduct criminal background checks for license applicants.