Would you classify this as a med error? I think it is.

oramar · Aug 7, 2002

I was not interested in making fuss. I just wanted to make sure they looked into it and tried to fix it. The next person who get the wrong thing may have a reaction. They are paying my parking for both visits. As for the time, I must be the only person on these boards who has to little to do. I have been restless for months. But now they find this new medical problem and I might have to have surgery. No use signing up for classes or looking for work till this is all taken care of. By the way, you better believe I told them that no charges will go on my bill for yesterday. NO Charges I said. I was told they would take care of it but I will believe it when I see it. I will check my bill and if there is a charge then I will make fuss.

Agnus · Aug 7, 2002

Incident report my foot. I would insist that it be documented on my chart. The incident report is designed to protect the hospital. This needs to be documented on your medical record. An incident report is only admissable in court if the suing attorney can discover that it exist. Otherwise it is the hospial's own confidential record.

Documenting it on your chart is the only thing that protects you the patient. Supose you were harmed. Or supose something occured later as a result of this incident. Like lets say an allergic reaction to a later use of contrast. This should be in your record. Incident reports never appear in a patient record.

ceecel.dee, MSN, RN · Aug 7, 2002

Are X-ray techs held to the same standards in med passing that we are? Any x-ray techs out there?

Yes, it would be a med error if done by our nursing staff.

RN4ustat, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2002

Originally posted by oramar
Went for kidney scan yesterday. They put a IV in me and handed me contrast to drink. I drank it dutifully. When I walked into the cat scan room the tech was like "OH OH". I was supposed to have injected dye. So they gave me two options. Stay there and drink water in attempt to flush it out of my system. Or reschedule at later date. I rescheduled. I have seen to many situations as a med/surg nurse where that contrast just would not flush. I did not want to spend 3 or 4 hours only to find that they could not get scan anyway. I am glad I did not say I am a nurse. I would have looked dumb for not knowing mistake being made.

As an RN working in the radiology department, I can tell you that it is routine to do abdomen and pelvis CT scans with po/iv contrast unless otherwise ordered by the physician. The po contrast enhances the stomach and intestines, which are visible in pelvis scans and the IV contrast enhances the liver, kidneys, and bladder. Yes, you should have had both forms of contrast.

oramar · Aug 7, 2002

This is very specialized sort of scan that the doctor did not want the first kind of contrast to be drunk. I admit I am not to up on what goes on in radiology. I was told there was deffinitely a mistake and the tech recoginized it as soon as she saw the actually order. She was on the phone with the doctor in minutes. HE wanted a CT that actually looks like a angiogram of kidney arteries. Apparently, the stuff I drank would obscure the picture.

DIPLOMATICRN4HIRE, MSN, RN · Aug 7, 2002

Yes that is a medication error, in no uncertain terms is it not, it is also a delay in a scheduled test, and a cost delay to you and a time delay for your physican. There should be a incident report made, and I would expect that your Dr to know as well. Isnt the xray department under the same 5 rights conditons as the rest of the hospital?

2MagnoliaTrees · Aug 7, 2002

Med. error! Get copy of incident report and witness this incident documented in your chart (get copy of that too)for any further discussion or litigation down the road.

mother/babyRN, RN · Aug 8, 2002

Definitely. AND, I am getting pretty tired of every other department but nursing having no answers or consequences for their mistakes. All an incident report does is report an incident. Perhaps the mention of same might light a meager fire, however a call to the manager of the department with the information that your lawyer suggested you follow up on it, might light a warmer one.

If you aren't interested in making a fuss, they won't be interested in changing their policies , lines of communication or correcting their mistakes. It doesn't seem as though it was a big deal to them. From the way you described it , they were more worried about you finding out they made a mistake than admitting their error and possible consequences to you..Good luck to you...Might not hurt to pen a letter innocently asking if all departments of the facility are equally culpable when an error is committed, to the CEO of the hospital. They are always interested in good patient relations, and a letter might get passed via memo to the erring department and keep them on their toes for future reference...

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Aug 8, 2002

For heavens sake it was a mistake! THey recognized it and did their best to correct it and I would assume that someone apologized. It didn't hurt anyone, just a big inconvienence. Why would anyone sue? It's too bad that is the first thing that comes to everyone's mind, we are all human and eventually we will all make a mistake just as stupid and inconvienent.

Don't think I am belittling the experience you had oramar, it was a big mistake, but everyone survived. In my opinion lawsuits, letters, demanding your chart would be over the top. Asking that they double check themselves before you accepted the next prep would be appropriate, as would a nastygram if they charge you for the botched visit.

joenp · Aug 8, 2002

YOU GO GIRL!!!!! We are all behind you, because you have been doing something to protect your rights. I hope everything comes out well for you. Keep the faith, especially in yourself! joenp

NannaNurse · Aug 8, 2002

Hummmmmmm........can we all say........CALL YOUR ATTORNEY?????

OMG.... miscommunication????? I guess so. Did you have any adverse effects?????? Did you find out about any 'lasting' problems????? I'm hoping and praying all if ok and you don't suffer any ill-effects, but I would contact my attorney. This could have been a potiential serious situation!

Good luck!!

DelGR · Aug 8, 2002

An incident report should be done which would probably result in a RCA (root cause analysis) being done to find the root cause of the system or process problem or break down in communications.