Nurse fired for reporting a Medical Assistant for writing prescriptions...
A Pennsylvania nurse alleges that she was fired from her position at Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Health after reporting a medical assistant who was illegally making treatment decisions for patients.
Stephanie Shapllo, RN, said that she reported the medical assistant in November 2025 for illegally prescribing treatment to patients at the Penn State Health Progress Outpatient Cardiology Center.
According to the lawsuit, MAs at the practice were independently making medical decisions on whether to approve or deny patient prescription requests without consulting licensed physicians or nurse practitioners at the facility.
While reviewing one patient’s file, Ms. Shapllo found that on Nov. 5, 2025, an MA had cancelled a prescription refill request that a licensed nurse practitioner had ordered for the patient. The NP had originally put in a 90-day refill request for a patient’s heart medication, which the MA then reversed and replaced with a 30-day refill.
Ms. Shapllo also discovered that the MA had allegedly labelled the patient’s chart as “non-compliant,” which “had the potential of causing serious negative repercussions on the patient’s future care, outcomes and the patient-provider relationship,” according to the lawsuit.
Those were excerpts. I stopped copying and pasting them because the whole thing seems to be excerpt worthy.
In the midst of discovering and reporting all this, her disability accommodations were denied and she was put on administrative leave. She's suing them for retaliating, I believe. But my mind is blown by these details.