The negligence case I found related to my profession tells the story of a little girl who suffered profound brain injury due to a febrile seizure. An advanced life support ambulance was dispatched to a child suffering a seizure. While en route to the call, the paramedics got lost delaying response time by approximately thirteen minutes. Once the ambulance arrived on scene they found the patient to be suffering for status elliptic secondary to fever with a pulse oximetry reading of only seventy eight percent on room air. Pulse oximetry readings should be above ninety five percent on room air, and anything below eighty eight percent is considered extreme hypoxia.
The paramedics then decided to begin transporting the patient. While en route, medical control ordered for valium to be administered. At this point, the paramedic realized that he had left the key to access the narcotics at the station. Another ambulance was dispatched to the original crew’s station to pick up the narcotic key. The secondary ambulance then intercepted the first ambulance while en route to the hospital. The mistake of the paramedic for leaving the key at the station delayed the medication from being administered for over ten minutes. When the patient reached the emergency department she had been oxygen deprived for over forty five minutes. As a result of the incident, the patient was diagnosed with profound brain injury. The settlement for this case was ten million two hundred thousand dollars.
The underlying problem is the company policy of allowing and/or requiring the ambulance crew to remove the narcotic key from the ambulance. As shown by this case the policy proved to be detrimental for a patient. Requiring emergency medical response personnel to ...
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...ck box would greatly reduce the chance of a patient not receiving their medications due to inaccessibility. Once management has decided which option they feel is best for their company they must follow through with their plan. Employers should train their employees the importance of maintaining records and accessibility to their narcotics. Disciplinary actions against employees should be taken if they should lose keys or narcotics. This negligence case could have been avoided if management had planned ahead and considered problems that may arise with their narcotic securing system.
Works Cited
Dunn, R.T. (2010).Dunn & Haimann’s healthcare management (9th ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
Paramedic Negligence - Failure to Treat Infant with Febrile Seizures (2014). Retrieved January
31, 2014 from http://www.bwglaw.com/lawyer-attorney-1368170.html
In the case study identify the incident and explain the problem that might trigger a root cause analysis. In this case study, a patient admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with septic shock requiring vasopressors that suffered an MI in the course of his treatment due to vasopressin overdose as the incident. The problem that triggered a root cause analysis was likely related to a log increase in the dose of vasopressin because of a prescribing error, pharmacy issues also figured prominently in this error, the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system that did not eliminate medication errors and domino effect to the nurse that started the medication that eventually caused the patient to have an MI. The patient in this case was receiving the medication vasopressin, at a dose of 0.4 units/min, a dosage used for gastrointestinal hemorrhage and variceal bleeding rather than the correct dose of 0.04 units/min for treating shock. The vasopressin order was incorrectly written by a resident physician after he received a verbal order from his supervising critical care fellow (Flanders, S. & Saint, S., 2005). The dose that was used for the patient was so high that it acted as a vasoconstrictive agent to reduce the blood flow and facilitate hemostatic plug formation in the bleeding vessel thus causing the MI (complication of high dose vasopresson infusion) (Cagir, B. & Katz, J.). Furthermore, the nurse caring for this patient administered the incorrect dose of vasopressin as a result of the domino effect. In fact, the incorrect dose was given for more than 16 hours, which means that more than one nurse was involved in the error. It was not until a nurse was discussing the medication dosing with nursing students that the incorrect ...
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Medical malpractice lawsuits are an extremely serious topic and have affected numerous patients, doctors, and hospitals across the country. Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional” (Medical malpractice, n.d.). If a doctor acts negligent and causes harm to a patient, malpractice lawsuits arise. Negligence is the concept of the liability concerning claims of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of tort law. Tort law provides that one person may litigate negligence to recover damages for personal injury. Negligence laws are designed to deter careless behavior and also to compensate victims for any negligence.
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There was inappropriate staffing in the Emergency Room which was a factor in the event. There was one registered nurse (RN) and one licensed practical nurse (LPN) on duty at the time of the incident. Additional staff was available and not called in. The Emergency Nurses Association holds the position there should be two registered nurses whose responsibility is to prov...
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Responsibility and accountability become important when medical staff gives or doses patients with medication. The chance for making a medication error presents itself at all times. Those passing medications must follow established policies and procedures developed and laid forth by t...
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