Utah hospital nurse is roughed up and arrested by cop for doing her job

maybe you are correct with this statement but i would think drawing blood from a person is just as personal as their name and DOB...
This is from the link i provided
Relevance. The information requested must be relevant and material to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry;
Specificity. The request must be specific and limited in scope to the extent possible in light of the law enforcement purpose for which the information is requested;
Identifiable Information Necessary. De-identified information could not reasonably be used.

The privacy rule says that a hospital may rely on statements in the administrative request, subpoena, or summons or other document in deciding that this three-part test is satisfied. However, a hospital is not required to rely on any document, and should not release the information if the hospital believes the three-part test is not met. Each hospital should develop its own procedures for handling these requests and ensuring the three-part test is met.

So it looks like the hospital is required to come up with rules that meet these criteria its likely they have specific guidelines in place for exactly this scenario.

And btw, the cop stated that the reason the didn't have a warrant is their was no probable cause...I don't find fault in the nurse here. Her actions were not the cause of the escalation and protecting the cop is this case is not warranted in my opinion. I mean in the end there was no rush for blood to be drawn, the dude died so he must have been very bad off on the table.

 

Do they even sell liquor in Utah?

 

as i remember you cant buy beer and liquor in the same place

 

That, and drag their client into making more money. It costs to nolo it to county court. Then they have a refusal hearing, then, if the client still has money, they give them the ol "we got em right where we want em" routine and try it in county court. At $2500-$5k a court appearance, that's some money spent. Most of the time, the attorney would show up and ask for a plea. And act like they beat the system. When you do over a hundred or so a year, you get a good system going and it keeps he technical part sound. I liked it for a while. Then it became brutal.

 

In principle, I agree with you. However, I did watch the video and it can't be described as interjecting herself in to the investigation. She was doing her job....calmly and with professionalism. She had documentation to prove the agreement between the local PD and the hospital. It included 3 circumstances under which blood could be drawn. She was very careful to show the officer the document, she got clarification over the phone from her supervisor and politely told the officer that none of the circumstances were in place including the various possible types of warrant.

At some point, he just snapped and went after her with a ridiculous amount of force. It was not necessary and frankly, I hope he gets fired.

 

This is the part I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. Why do you need blood if you have no probable cause to need it? Am I missing something, or am I just that tired today?

 

The article stated that it was to "protect" the alleged innocence of the other driver as he was not suspected of DUI. Then when I read that the patient here was given meds by the paramedics, it somehow becomes important to get blood and have a drug breakdown.

 

where is the logic in.... we must shit on one person (the nurse) to protect another (the truck driver) to ensure we can convict a third (the dead guy)

 

If what the cops were doing turns out to be legal & proper then she was the cause of the escalation.

I don't know about 'protecting the cop' but it seems like the only objection the hospital should have is if the nurse was being asked to draw the blood herself. She wasn't being asked. It's not the hospitals job to protect the guy from legal issues.

It's very likely that what the cops were doing was improper and/or illegal, but it's not the hospital's job to stop this. The cops did not pose a medical danger to the patient.

Maybe so, I didn't watch it. I'm not sure that "doing her job" is verifying that the cops are doing their job.

It seems like she was confused that these were the circumstances for which the hospital staff would draw the blood for the cops. As opposed to the cops bringing their own phlebotomist, I think this might be what's being overlook. The reason I say this is because there's nothing to keep family from inviting an independent lab to draw blood from a loved one and, in so doing, having their own phlebotomist drive to the hospital to draw the blood. In this scenario, the hospital staff has no right to object.

I finally watched the video. The use of force was not excessive at all. Ridiculous? Yes, but only if the arrest turns out to be improper. These things are always ugly. It's impossible for cops to arrest an unwilling person and have it look good on camera, this doesn't mean that what happened is improper, but in this case it probably was.