Ways to Handle Sexual Harassment in HHAs

At a home health agency, an employee complained about a patient she tends to weekly in his home. According to her, the patient says inappropriate things and attempts to touch her in a way that makes her uncomfortable. She feels bad for him as he's old and frail. The home health agency doesn't want to lose him as a patient but is concerned because the worker is making a fuss and other employees want to know what's going on. How should the HHA handle the situation?

Sexual harassment is a serious offence and the HHA has a legal obligation to safeguard their employees from it. In September last year, the EEOC sued Nurse One/Team One, LCC, a McMinnville, TN-based provider of home health care services, alleging that the company violated federal law by condoning a sexually hostile work environment in the home of one of its clients and then firing an employee for complaining about the client.

The EEOC in that case alleged that Nurse One/Team One ignored at least 25 written reports from not just one, but a group of female certified nursing assistants of sexual harassment by a male client. Instead of effecting changes to stop the harassment, Nurse One/ Team One continued to place CNAs at the home of the harassing client. When the lead plaintiff refused to make an apology to the client for telling another CNA about his actions, Nurse One/Team One sacked her.

You can learn several things from this case:

Review and update your HHA's policies and procedures relating to sexual harassment.
Investigate if an employee complains about sexual harassment by a patient.
Take steps to put an end to the harassment. The gist of the story is that you should never avoid the issue in the hope that it'll go away. If you ignore the problem, the EEOC will get involved.

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