Back in my hospital pharmacist days, we would monitor the administration and levels of some antibiotics, the main one being vancomycin, which has a narrow therapeutic index and people metabolize it in very different ways. Anyway, we found out that a bag had been hung but not administered, and I filed an incident report that said, among other things, “Nobody noticed this for 16 hours?” Vancomycin is a “Godzillacillin” and a delay in administration this long could potentially be fatal!
Guess who got in trouble - and it wasn’t the nurse. It was considered to be disrespectful! I’m glad I don’t work there any more.
(When we started that particular program, we had pharmacists saying things like “This nurse needs to pull their head out of their ass”, not realizing that it was part of the medical documentation and was just plain old unprofessional.)
I have Kaiser insurance, and they always ask for my medical record number, before confirming my name and birthdate. No mixups up yet!
My sister has different insurance, and there is a woman with her name and same birthday but a year later (i.e. MM/DD/53 vs. MM/DD/54) who lives within the same zip code. A couple of times there was initial confusion, but it never went beyond the initial check in at reception.
At one point, my father and I had the same doctor. We have the same name (different DOB of course) but no problems in person because the receiving clerk always asked for my OHIP (government health care) card, with its unique ID code. When calling on the phone, I always included the year of birth when identifying myself, though, as they were going to ask as soon as they pulled up the patient files.
Doc: “Okay, judging by the Sharpie on this patient, it’s 6-6… is it June already? I thought we had fireworks a while ago… huh, must be those Tequila ‘n’ Red Bulls I just slammed. Well, let’s cut sumthin’!”
@nearwildheaven is a long-time R.E.M. fan (hence the username), as am I (perhaps I should have been JKellyMapsandLegends). We were just exchanging R.E.M. song titles, to communicate personal best wishes.
I was just playing because with both values the same it wouldn’t matter which was which but would never have picked up the reference as I can’t stand them.
Thanks for the ‘splanin’
It’s not just wise for them to not comment; they can’t because of HIPAA and other medical privacy laws. So news about malpractice cases should normally be taken with a grain of salt, though in this case there doesn’t seem to be a plausible defense.
Assuming that this situation is actually as reported, is it possible that the surgeon could be charged with murder? I mean, that’s what they’d call it if I cut out someone’s liver (or so I’m told). I realize that there has to be some special consideration given to a surgeon who’s supposed to be cutting parts out of people, but I’d expect that something like this is egregious enough to overcome that.
Probably not murder , which usually requires the intent to kill or at least harm someone or “depraved indifference to human life”. But there are other types of homicide such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide that might fit , depending of course, on the facts.
IANAL, but I would presume murder requires some element of deliberate intent to bring about someone’s death. Most likely the surgeon would be charged with manslaughter, criminal negligence, etc.
I desperately hope the medical licensing people are also taking a VERY hard look at EVERYONE who was in that operating room. Sure, the “surgeon” is apparently in charge, but did no other “medical professional” in that room have working eyes and a functioning brain?
In the year 9999…