[pickledpepperRN]

I've been thinking for many years that this hospital needs to be run by nuns.
There is too much curruption.
So many fine nurses and others have quit over the years.

Once the premier trauma center the county supervisors ignored it.
The trouble can be traced to the top. I refused to go back as registry because one unit after another became unsafe. Understaffing was just a small part of it.

I'm not an ER nurse an not competent for triage.

[TazziRN]

[quote=CritterLover;2215821]Can you quote it for me?

The triage nurse involved has resigned, and the emergency room supervisor has been reassigned. Additional disciplinary actions could come this week.

It was about halfway down the first page. The nurse is named on the second page.

[CritterLover]

[quote=TazziRN;2215924]

Originally Posted by CritterLover

Can you quote it for me?




It was about halfway down the first page. The nurse is named on the second page.

I'm sorry, that isn't what I wanted you to quote (though rereading my post, it sure does look like that is what I wanted to you quote . Sorry.....it was late and I was tired).

I saw that part of the article. What I can't find is where it attributes the patient being told that the hospital couldn't help her and to "go home" to the triage nurse.

I've reread both of the articles on the situation, and I can't find that part.

By the way, if you read the article posted in the ER nurses forum, it presents the situation very differently. (and it, too, is from the LA times) That, everyone, is why I'm a little skeptical. I read the other article first, and according to it, she had just been discharged, and had opted not to leave. That is a pretty significant difference from the situation depicted in the second article. (Not that she couldn't still have checked in again and been seen again, but it is a significant varience in the story.) We are getting all this information from newspaper articles, and the two I've read contradict each other in some places. Which one is accurate?? Which parts of each article are accurate??

[bigsyis]

[quote=CritterLover;2216083]

Originally Posted by TazziRN

I'm sorry, that isn't what I wanted you to quote (though rereading my post, it sure does look like that is what I wanted to you quote . Sorry.....it was late and I was tired).

I saw that part of the article. What I can't find is where it attributes the patient being told that the hospital couldn't help her and to "go home" to the triage nurse.

I've reread both of the articles on the situation, and I can't find that part.

By the way, if you read the article posted in the ER nurses forum, it presents the situation very differently. (and it, too, is from the LA times) That, everyone, is why I'm a little skeptical. I read the other article first, and according to it, she had just been discharged, and had opted not to leave. That is a pretty significant difference from the situation depicted in the second article. (Not that she couldn't still have checked in again and been seen again, but it is a significant varience in the story.) We are getting all this information from newspaper articles, and the two I've read contradict each other in some places. Which one is accurate?? Which parts of each article are accurate??

Critterlover, in the first article it said that the pt was outside the hospital, and brought into the ER by Law Enforcement personnel. The Triage Nurse was quoted as having "thanked" the officers for bringing her back into the facility. I agree teetoally w/Tazzi that the reentry constituted a "new" hospital visit, and she should have at least been eyeball triaged and a chart printed. All the nurse would have had to do is call to the back, either to the ERP or the Charge Nurse and let them know that the woman was back, complaining louder than ever of abdominal pain, and what should she do w/her? The monkey then would have been off her back, and onto theirs.

[TazziRN]

Okay , I tried to quote it and the site isn't letting me post it for some reason. It's on the first page where the nurse told the pt she had already been seen.

[cardiacRN2006]

In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a complainer.

"Thanks a lot, officers," an emergency room nurse told Los Angeles County police who brought in Rodriguez early May 9 after finding her in front of the Willowbrook hospital yelling for help. "This is her third time here."

The 43-year-old mother of three had been released from the emergency room hours earlier, her third visit in three days for abdominal pain. She'd been given prescription medication and a doctor's appointment.

Turning to Rodriguez, the nurse said, "You have already been seen, and there is nothing we can do," according to a report by the county office of public safety, which provides security at the hospital.

This is from the first page of this thread...

[MIMI1JB]

Wow, thhis was outragous. I cant believe they just sent her away like that. Sas, very sad!

[RNOTODAY]

Not to sound harsh here, but the woman *was* seen and d/c'd. I know there was a doc involved in her care. Why is there no mention of the dropping the ball on the *docs* dx? I mean, seeing she was allready there and "treated", I would let her wait too. I think I really would....and it scares me. Why is is always the NURSES!!!!! Obviously she perfed something, a DOCTOR is excused to MISS that, and let her walk out????

[TrudyRN]

Originally Posted by RNOTODAY

Not to sound harsh here, but the woman *was* seen and d/c'd. I know there was a doc involved in her care. Why is there no mention of the dropping the ball on the *docs* dx? I mean, seeing she was allready there and "treated", I would let her wait too. I think I really would....and it scares me. Why is is always the NURSES!!!!! Obviously she perfed something, a DOCTOR is excused to MISS that, and let her walk out????

In this case, it appears to have been the triage nurse, Ms. Linda Ruttlen, who let the patient lie on the floor, fall out of a wheelchair a couple of times, let the police actually come to arrest he in lieu of getting her examined again, let a janitor clean the floor around her - who, in short, let her die an agonizing and probably unnecessary death.

What I don't get is why the ER staff never, apparently, called a supervisor. And why didn't the ER doc get someone else to see this patient? I'd say the doc is definitely culpable, too, for, I'm guessing, not getting a surgical consult, not calling another doc of some sort to see her, not doing better imaging, and what about her lab work? It's just such a colossal screw-up. I know it happens more than we'd like to think but this one is public now and the cast of characters will likely pay a high price for their errors.

About the Triage nurse: all she had to do was get her registered and seen again. And she should have called her manager or House Supervisor. Then the onus would have been off of her. Who cares if she was seen 3 times or 33 times? She had a right and a definite need to be seen. So don't allow your frustration or impression of the patient being a "turkey" to keep you from getting the patient seen a million times if the doc screwed up the first 999,999 times. Help the doctor get the DX right.

[TrudyRN]

The death of Ms. Rodriguez in Los Angeles is truly terrifying and should never have happened.

I can't help but wonder, though, what the over all condition was in the ER at the time this terrible tragedy took place. How busy was it, with what patient conditions, how many staff, equipment availability, etc.?

I also can't help but wonder what the finances are like at King-Drew-Harbor Medical Center, that is, how many millions and billions the citizens pay to support this hospital. The article says this patient was a California native and I must say I am glad she was not illegally in the country because I really would have a problem with that. I was always very liberal in my view of illegal immigrants, figuring they wouldn't need to come here if their own governments cared about them at all and I figured we all just need to help our fellow man. Reading a book called "Mexifornia" changed that. I am no longer as generous-hearted toward illegals. I still feel for their hard lives but there are lots of legal Americans with hard lives, too. I don't like to feel this way but that is the new truth for me. (I should just quit reading anything.)

I still believe the triage nurse should have done everything in her power to help this person, legal, illegal, whatever. That is not something that should have been taken into consideration at that moment but the issue does need to be addressed and laws need to be passed that will relieve taxpayers of the burden of paying for medical care (and lots of other care) for illegals, IMO. Sorry if it sounds harsh.

I was just told that my grandson can't attend a summer school class in his school district because he goes to a private Parochial school normally. I'll tell you - it burns me up and I will be raising Cain about it, suing if I have to. His parents and I pay a lot of taxes to support a school district that he doesn't even use and now he can't take a measly summer class? I buy the fundraiser candies, etc. that the school district sells 2 and 3 times per year, I have donated some things to the schools because I am an alumni there, I pay tons of money for the district to run school buses that are never even half filled. I am ticked off!

Anyway, just my view. Sorry if I am stepping on any toes but we are adults and we can calmly discuss controversial topics. Can't we?