This is no longer HIPPA violation as it is all public record. I will give you the short version. Man had a CABG 5 years ago. He was on pathway and scheduled to go home in the AM, however his Blood sugar was 360's. D/C held. Multiple notes throughout the day that he needed to keep his monitor on while on a tele floor. That night at 2:12 am he coded. I was the first one to the room. (did I mention I was extra that night?) Pushed the code button and hooked him to the cart. At the time practice on the floor was to take them off Central monitor and put them on the crash cart monitor so that you had a picture in the room. He was shocked while the machine was still calibrating. (Residents were there by that time.) He was stablized and in SB, then placed back on the central monitor at 2:19 am. Was now back in VFIB. Shocked a second time. The doctor refused to believe that the first shock ever took place, even when he was told by the residents and nurses there. He told the family the nurses on the floor were incompetant and they should sue.
Long story short is the nurse who had the patient did a poor job documenting the actions taken during the code.
The nursing supervisor documented med times based on her watch (10 minutes faster then central monitor) and not the crash cart (3 minutes slower than the central monitor) or central monitor.
I didn't document the doctor screaming at me for only shocking once or my response to that temper tantrum.
I expect a verdict tomarrow.
OH! I should say that this man who claims we didn't shock for 7 minutes is alive, well and rides a Harley.
what i want to know now is area the staff of nurses who were 'incompitent' going to sue the physician for defiamtion of character and pain/suffering and for being a jack a**?
I'm pretty sure the cardiac monitor on the crash cart keeps documentation of each and every shock (time and joules delivered;) I'm surprised the biomed folks were not able to provide that.
Old models may not; but every code I am in, we run a code summary before we turn off the monitor.
At any rate, the Harley rider lives to ride again!!
Good job!
Your absolutely right. The code summary was printed out that night. Some of it was mounted on strip paper, the rest of it seemed to have disappeared. Even worse, what was mounted has faded over time so that you can hardly see the tracing. The time had tape half over it, so that it was COMPLETELY faded. So for example a backwords C was either a 5 or a 3. (Cover up the top part of those two numbers to see what I mean.)
) Pushed the code button and hooked him to the cart. At the time practice on the floor was to take them off Central monitor and put them on the crash cart monitor so that you had a picture in the room. He was shocked while the machine was still calibrating. (Residents were there by that time.) He was stablized and in SB, then placed back on the central monitor at 2:19 am. Was now back in VFIB. Shocked a second time. The doctor refused to believe that the first shock ever took place, even when he was told by the residents and nurses there. He told the family the nurses on the floor were incompetant and they should sue.
Even worse, what was mounted has faded over time so that you can hardly see the tracing. The time had tape half over it, so that it was COMPLETELY faded. So for example a backwords C was either a 5 or a 3. (Cover up the top part of those two numbers to see what I mean.)
NATmicuRN
40 Posts
hope everything works out in your favor as im sure it will keep us posted!!