Incident Report - 6/9/2457 - Phoebe Essel

[Frances]

Reporting Personnel: Keegan Cox

Rank of Reporting Personnel: Chief Medical Officer

Personnel Involved: Phoebe Essel

Time of Incident: 6/9/2457, 14:00

Location of Incident: Medical Bay

Nature of Incident: []Workplace Hazard []Accident/Injury []Destruction of Property []Neglect of Duty []Harassment []Assault [x]Misconduct [x]Other: Overstepping of official powers

Overview of the Incident:

I arrived on the station at approximately 14:00, being called on emergency due to a reported code blue ((it was nuke, let's just pretend it was an unspecified code blue and no one died)). Moving in towards the station's medical bay, I met one of my doctors standing outside the lobby, without any apparent ID or PDA. Asking them what happened, I managed to garner that the doctor had been handed what was equivalent to a "field demotion" by Phoebe Essel, a lab assistant working on the station.

Although the medical roster had two active doctors, a chemist, a virologist, a nurse, a surgeon, and a geneticist present at the time, it seems some of my staff had seen it fit to invite Phoebe Essel inside of the medical bay and hand out medical equipment to her, as they somehow found themselves incapable of performing their regular medical duties. Although Dr. Essel was a lab assistant at the time, I was told she possessed a doctorate of medicine, a fact which was known by several members of the crew, and explained her impromptu "admission" in the medical staff.

However, once there, she proceeded to take away another doctor's ID and PDA with the assistance of a detective. This doctor, apparently deemed unfit to work by Dr. Essel, had reportedly been found smoking inside of medbay and engaging in a critical medical procedure without making efficient use of anesthetic (the case of a collapsed lung, which might require immediate treatment depending on its severity.) While I do not condone smoking inside of the medical bay and believe the doctor in question should be put under review, I find it highly inappropriate and a potentially shocking abuse of power that Dr. Essel saw it fit to confiscate the doctor's ID herself rather than going through appropriate channels - there was a Head of Personnel present at the time, who I believe was not contacted at all. The appropriate course of action in this instance would have been to inform security, remove the doctor from the emergency theatre if he was judged to be unfit to practice (assigning him to other duties until he could be evaluated), then immediately refer the matter to the Head of Personnel. Instead, Dr. Essel seems to have taken the matter into her own hands without going as far as to get command or any security personnel involved, or even informed of this incident.

While I understand that code blues can be stressful and demanding situations, and that time and context-sensitive actions need to be taken, actions which might sometime bypass corporate regulations or the chain of command, I cannot in a right state of mind condone Dr. Essel's actions. Her observed behavior (as well as the behavior reported to me by the concerned doctor) seems to show she has little respect for the chain of command or proper organization aboard the NSS Aurora.

Dr. Essel has also proven to be highly confrontational and argumentative over the medical comms, considering she was not even a member of the department at the time. When I asked her the reason of her presence in medical despite her title of lab assistant, she questioned my intelligence before providing me with a satisfying answer, and called several other members of my staff of terms such as "retarded" and "low-intelligence".

Following are excerpts taken from the Aurora's telecommunication server at the time of the incident:

Phoebe Essel [Medical] says, "I'll mess with your doctors if they're garbage. That's my duty."

Phoebe Essel [Medical] says, "I'm persuing xenobiology because I can, Cox. I doubt you are capable of such mental duress."

I was also informed by the involved doctor that she verbally demanded he hand over his ID to her, and that she claimed to be the doctor's superior despite her currently assigned title clearly stating otherwise.

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As a whole, I am under the impression following this incident that Dr. Essel shows a clear entitlement towards responsibilities which are not hers to bear, and might want to see herself involved with the station's medical duties even without being part of the medical roster of going through the proper channels to be given an assignment. I would have much less of an issue with this were she not to prove as confrontational and dismissive towards both my staff and the chain of command as she is.

 

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Did you report it to a Head of Staff or IAA? If so, who?: N/A

Additional notes:

((it's a bit complicated, but if any admins/DOs have OOC questions about the thread, I'd appreciate if you sent me a PM first before posting on the thread because of certain confidentiality issues. I should be able to explain everything fairly easily))

[Guest]

TO: Keegan Cox, Chief Medical Officer, NSS Aurora

FROM: Frank Marco, Duty Officer, NMSS Odin

SUBJECT: RE: Incident Report - 6/9/2457 - Phoebe Essel

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BODY:

Given the nature of general inactivity of the filer of the report and inability to get in contact with the aforementioned, we've considered the case closed.

However, do note this does not mean Doctor Essel gets off scot-free. If any further issues with conduct turns up in another report with concurrent behavior, leniency will not be guaranteed, and they will be subject to review.

Thank you for filing the report, we apologize for not getting back to you on the matter.

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DTG: 20-21:00-TAU CETI STANDARD-07-2457

SIGN: Frank Marco