NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A former Ascension Saint Thomas nurse has come forward with an important message. She is sharing what it was like inside the Midtown hospital and what she says you need to know.

This comes just one day after Ascension Saint Thomas was notified by the federal government that its immediate jeopardy status had been removed from the Midtown and West locations and the hospitals are no longer in danger of losing their Medicare funding… for now.

But we also learned Wednesday that investigators have continued to find ongoing and even new serious problems since those four patients were critically injured after being given the wrong medication last month.

This former longtime Midtown nurse said she’s speaking for everyone who still works at Ascension Saint Thomas who can’t speak up and she’s speaking to all of the patients and their families who have no idea what’s really been happening at the Midtown hospital.

She said that many of the safety issues that state and federal investigators now are finding, she and other employees had reported them to hospital management for years and were ignored.

“I remember telling my husband, this should have never happened. This should have never happened,” Brenda Cleghorn told NewsChannel5 Investigates.

The former longtime nurse said after learning what happened to the four patients at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown in August, she was angry, but not surprised.

“I told people several times before I even left that, I said, ‘Something bad is going to happen. I mean, it’s inevitable that something bad is really going to happen.’ I didn’t think it was going to be catastrophic.”

Cleghorn worked at the Midtown hospital as a nurse for nearly 10 years, but left this past June.

“Why?” NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked her.

“Safety. Safety issues. Safety issues that I witnessed. Safety issues that I reported. And from all accounts, I’d never seen a change,” Cleghorn explained.

“I mean, that seems to leave a job because you’re so concerned about safety?” we wondered.

“Yeah. Well, I was concerned about my license as well. I mean, I felt that my license was in jeopardy every time I walked in the door,” she replied.

In a company produced video, an Ascension Saint Thomas hospital employee describes their “commitment to exceptional patient outcomes and safety at every step.”

But the hospital Cleghorn said she worked at was very different.

“I had nurses that didn’t know how to hang IV fluids,” she recalled, adding, “They had no idea how to give antibiotics.”

She said there was constant turnover, shifts were frequently short-staffed, and new employees often had little experience and were given tasks they’re not trained for.

She described what she saw on the dialysis floor.

“So there were times that, yes, nurses were guessing on how to do peritoneal dialysis.”

And she described what she saw on the stroke floor.

“They had no stroke-certified nurse that worked on the floor and they didn’t know how to assess a stroke. They didn’t,” Cleghorn shared.

But more than that, Cleghorn said, there were plenty of warning signs ahead of the pharmacy error last month that caused catastrophic injuries to the four patients who were there for routine joint replacement surgeries.

Cleghorn described scanning medicine she was supposed to give to a patient that she later discovered was mislabeled.

“This error kept popping up and I couldn’t figure out why,” she recalled, continuing, “It wasn’t even the right medication. So it was put in the wrong drawer, in the wrong spot in the PIXIS or in the medicine machine.”

“And who put that medicine in there?” we asked.

“Pharmacy techs,” she answered.

You may remember that in the August drug mix-up, according to state investigators, it was pharmacy techs who grabbed the wrong medication and then overrode the scanning system that’s supposed to catch errors like that.

“I worked three nights a week, and I could almost guarantee you that at least one of those nights, if I requested medication, I would get it, and the label on the bag was not the medication that was in the bag,” Cleghorn stated.

Cleghorn said every time something like that happened, that there was what’s known as a reportable incident, she would fill out all of the required paperwork. But rarely, if ever, did she ever hear back or see any sort of change.

“And you continued to see the wrong medicine being put in these drawers?” we asked.

“I did. I did. It occurred more frequently,” Cleghorn replied.

But when we reached out to Ascension about this, the hospital said in a statement, “We take concerns raised by our team members seriously … and investigate all reported issues. Safety submissions … trigger a thorough internal review … and [we take] immediate corrective action to help keep our patients and staff safe.”

Yet that’s not what investigators found during their two-day visit to both Midtown and Saint Thomas West earlier this month.

In their latest report just released Wednesday, investigators described how hospital leadership routinely and repeatedly “failed to ensure medication errors and adverse patient events were promptly investigated and analyzed, and failed to ensure corrective and preventative actions were implemented.”

Cleghorn said her whole experience convinced her that if she ever needed medical care, it would not be at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown.

“I do not want surgery at Midtown. I do not want nursing care at Midtown. I, I don’t,” she said.

“Don’t you trust it?” we wondered.

“I don’t trust it,” she confirmed.

And she’s apparently not the only one.

Earlier this summer, Midtown conducted an employee survey. And the results released in mid-July, show only about a third (38%) would recommend the hospital as a great place to work, and less than half (48%) said they had the resources they needed to do their job effectively or effectively meet patient needs.

And when asked if they “would recommend Ascension as a place to receive care,” many of these nurses said no.

“What does that say to you?” we asked Cleghorn.

“Don’t go. Because they, I mean, they see the ins and outs of what’s going on in the hospital,” she explained.

Cleghorn is still working in health care, but no longer in hospital setting.

As far as how long these sorts of problems have been going on, Cleghorn said she really first noticed the safety issues and the apparent lack of accountability after the current CEO and much of the hospital leadership team started in 2021, and that they just seemed to pick up after that. Keep in mind, state investigators in their initial report blamed hospital management for creating a culture of non-compliance that led to last month’s drug error and related issues.

Ascension Saint Thomas full statement:
Providing safe, patient-centered care is at the core of our mission at Ascension Saint Thomas.

We take concerns raised by our team members seriously and maintain a structured, non-punitive process to review and investigate all reported issues. Safety submissions or operational feedback items trigger a thorough internal review led by clinical leadership, aimed at identifying root causes, updating workflows, and taking immediate corrective action to help keep our patients and staff safe. 

While individual perspectives are important, this former associate’s claims do not reflect the broader feedback we receive from our workforce at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown or the strength and standards of our workplace culture. 

 In our latest associate survey representing nearly 2,000 Midtown team members, Ascension Saint Thomas outperformed industry benchmarks in 26 of the 27 metrics, including associates recommending the health system as a preferred place to work and receive care. We actively rely on this transparent, organization-wide feedback to measure the current state of our culture, holding leadership accountable, and drive continuous improvement across our hospitals.

To read the initial full state report:
Tennessee State Health Facilities Commission Report on Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown mistake

To read the follow-up full state report:
Tennessee State Health Facilities Commission Follow-up Report on Ascension Saint Thomas investigation

PREVIOUS RELATED REPORTING:

Ascension Saint Thomas given reprieve, but investigators find more serious problems at two Nashville hospitals

Ascension Saint Thomas also faces loss of TennCare money as well as Medicare money after drug mix-up

Ascension Saint Thomas West and Midtown hospitals face loss of Medicare funding after drug mix-up

Tennessee law limits what the four patients critically injured in hospital drug mix up can collect in damages if they sue

Not all hospitals use their own pharmacies to prepare surgery drugs like Ascension Saint Thomas

State investigation into drug mix-up at Nashville hospital pharmacy finds multiple systemic failures

Woman paralyzed after drug mix-up in Nashville hospital pharmacy to begin intensive rehabilitation

Nashville hospital adds pharmacy safeguards after drug mix-up but why weren’t they already in place?

Hospital confirms pharmacy error one week after drug mix-up causes catastrophic complications in 4 patients

TBI now investigating drug mix-up at Nashville hospital that caused catastrophic complications in four patients

Drug mix-up leads to event during surgeries at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital leaving at least one paralyzed

If you or someone you know was affected by this medical mistake, I’d like to hear from you. Please email me at Jennifer.Kraus@newschannel5.com.