Huh, having sex on the job can get you fired

HARRISBURG - A hospital had the right to fire a male nurse for having consensual sex with a patient two days after she underwent heart surgery, a state appeals court ruled yesterday.

A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel unanimously overturned an arbitrator's decision to reinstate the nurse.

The woman had double bypass surgery at Temple University on July 13, 2006, and had sex with registered nurse Richard J. Baldwin about 4 a.m. on July 15, according to the opinion.

The matter came to light a few days later, when the woman asked a doctor to determine if the unprotected sex had resulted in any sexually transmitted diseases. Hospital investigators said the patient indicated that she was attracted to Baldwin and that the medications she was taking had nothing to do with what happened.

Baldwin, now 44, apparently gave conflicting statements about the encounter to hospital investigators and the arbitrator.

He testified before the arbitrator that he did not have sex with the woman, but investigators said he told them that the woman had come on to him and that he was being fired for having consensual sex.

In a brief phone interview yesterday afternoon, Baldwin said "of course" he did not have sex with the patient.

He called the court's decision "ridiculous" and said he was in the lounge of another hospital, where he now works, and unable to discuss the matter in the presence of co-workers. He declined to identify his current employer.

A hearing by state regulators into whether to revoke Baldwin's nursing license is scheduled for September. His license remains active, according to the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs in Harrisburg. *