I was told that 3 days after a patient left his lawyer requested all hospital records and incident reports over a nosicomial problem. (Don't want to get too detailed.)
I wrote a pretty incriminating incident report, that,while true, guarantees I'll get a supoena. What bums me is I feel my privacy is violated in that there should be some kind of private internal reporting system that allows for documentation. My incident report set in motion a chain of events that eventually helped the patient, but no one will see that part.
The big defense lawyers with lobbiests with deep pockets have gotten their way.
I wonder if this means nurses are going to be less inclined to make incident reports. We have a private line we can report ethical delemmas, so I guess I'll have to start using that.
Mainly, I'm just venting.