Assuming that I am a healthcare regulatory agency investigator, my position is that the death of Frank is a case of professional negligence. The client came to the hospital complaining that he felt weaker than he was before but the nephrologists and urologist readily assumed that it is just a normal result of the surgery (kidney transplant and transurethral resection of the prostate) he undergone. The nephrologist did not even bother to examine the patient reasoning that it is not her responsibility because the pain Frank felt is due to the catheter which is under the function of the urologist.
The said nephrologist as a health service provider should have examined the patient and personally contacted the urologist-surgeon because the surgery done is a shared responsibility between them. The patient was already too weak and yet he waited many hours for the urologist to arrive. As a medical practitioner, the doctor should be readily available for emergencies and if not so should refer the case to another available doctor. The ethical conduct of the doctors and the nurses who attended the patient is disturbing.
He was feeling much pain and yet the doctors were not there to give him attention and prompt treatment or management of the complained clinical signs. I think the major error in the scenario is the administration of narcotic pain reliever even though the result of the blood Potassium test is not yet read. The inconsistency or negligence is that aforementioned action. 2. Iatrogenic infection is a type of nasocomial infection that is due to a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure done by a doctor(MedicineNet).
Example of this is a urinary tract infection attributed to the insertion of a catheter. Medical errors are mistakes incurred by health professionals either through diagnosis, drug administration, surgery, therapy, laboratory interpretation, and etc. that brought about harm to the patient(Education, 2007). Patient safety is associated with the keeping away, prevention, and obliteration of patient harm to the health service provided. It is also related to the quality of medical care given to the patient(Cummins, 2003).
Failure to rescue is not being able to remove a patient from situations such as complications of medical care and from complications of disease conditions. It measures the capacity of the health care providers to react to emergencies that happen in their jurisdiction(Services). 3. One medical error that occurred in Franks’ case is the failure to interpret the blood tests results immediately. It was conducted but the results were not interpreted immediately, this caused the obliteration of giving prompt treatment to alleviate the pain felt by the patient.
If the doctor interpreted the result immediately she could have noticed that the blood potassium level was already high and did not administer narcotic pain reliever. The increased potassium level was aggravated by the intake of the said narcotic drug. The 30 Safe Practices for Better Health Care will help in attaining the goal of delivering high quality and safe health care in every clinical scenario. It will serve as a guide or reminder to the health care providers for them to be advocates of the prevention of the occurrence of inflicting harm to the patients.
The said practices should be adopted by health care providers to ensure that they are capable of meeting the medical needs of the patients because they are equipped with high quality service delivery, safe procedures, culture of safety, and safe use of medication. 4. The failure to interpret the blood tests results immediately hence the administration of a not suitable drug for the condition of the patient; has negative impact on the family of the patient, the medical community, and the health care providers of the patient.
Its impact on the family is the loss of their beloved member which could have got a longer life if the professional negligence did not occur. The family’s trust to the medical service providers is already tainted. The incident is a slap to the medical community because it defeated the purpose of the existence of medical services; harm was inflicted instead of alleviating the patients’ condition. The nephrologist and urologist should be ashamed of their negligence; should be liable to pay damages; and if possible their license should be cancelled due to malpractice and prevent the occurrence of incidence like that.
It is a slap also to the credibility and education of the doctors because they by-pass the ethics of the medical practice. 5. Among the 30 Safe Practices for Better Health Care is the identification of high alert drugs like narcotics(Quality, 2005). This safe practice if utilized will avoid the administration of narcotic pain reliever with out first checking the blood Potassium levels because the health care provider already identified the scenarios in which the drug is contraindicated.
Another safe practice which is applicable to case study number 2 is the creation of a culture of safety wherein potential threats to the patients safety are reported and addressed to obtain a better health care system (Quality, 2005). If this said safety practice was used in the scenario, the nephrologist and urologist would have been able to scrutinize the patient’s condition in relation to his manifested clinical signs because they identified that there is a threat to the safety of the recently surgically operated patient.
6. Medical errors should be indicated in death certificates and CDC Vital Statistics reports so that people will be informed about the occurrence of the error and will be able to learn from it. The medical community will prevent the incidence of medical errors at all cost if the health services consumers are well informed and vigilant about these errors. In doing inflicting harm instead of alleviating the condition of the patient is eradiated. 7.
The knowledge I gained from this module is a big help for me as a consumer of healthcare for not only am I acquainted to the fundamentals of Patient Safety and Medical Error but also able to integrate this is a scenario that could possibly happen in reality. Now I can say that I am a well informed consumer for I already know possible medical errors and at the same time equipped with the safety practices to counteract these errors. I am already not a health consumer that fully relies on the healthcare provider for education in relation to this topic because this module enlightened me now.
References Cummins, J.B. V. a. D. S. (2003). N. P. S. Foundation. Education, C. f. C. (2007). Online Medical Dictionary Retrieved October 24, 2007, from http://cancerweb. ncl. ac. uk/cgi-bin/omd? action=Search+OMD&query= MedicineNet, I. MedicineNet. com. From http://www. medterms. com/script/main/art. asp? articlekey=3886 Quality, A. f. H. R. a. (2005).
30 Safe Practices for Better Health Care Fact Sheet [Electronic Version]. AHRQ Publication from http://www. ahrq. gov/qual/30safe. htm. Services, U. S. D. o. H. H. AHRQ PSnet Patient Safety Network Glossary Retrieved October 24, 2007, from http://www. psnet. ahrq. gov/glossary. aspx.