legal ramifications?

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scenario: patient in a room in a hospital 2 days with a bedside commode with someone else's urine in it. asked several times for it to be removed instead was just moved around the room "out of the way" and come back in a minute...2 days later the patient put the urine filled bedside commode out in the hallway, where it was still sitting when the patient was discharged. nurse thought the tech did it the tech thought the nurse did it...no one took ownership...

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Strange question. Not sure about the legal end but it speaks volume to how slack the staff is if the BSC was not cleaned prior to this pts arrival. How hard is it to empty and remove??

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Specializes in retired LTC.
Strange question. Not sure about the legal end but it speaks volume to how slack the staff is if the BSC was not cleaned prior to this pts arrival. How hard is it to empty and remove??
And everybody is guilty!

Wonder what the pt is going to write on that satisfaction survey?!?

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I don't see how there would be any legal ramifications.. I would have just cleaned the thing if it was my patient.. It would have taken maybe 5 minutes.

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Is there a reason that you could not have emptied it? Not meaning to be fresh, however, if I see it, I just do it. To continue to "ask someone else" is just mind boggling and quite a power struggle at the patient's expense.

It is really, really gross that the patient had to be in a room with a filled commode-and someone else's urine? You have GOT to be kidding. Equally as outrageous is that the PATIENT then had to remove the commode????

Infection control would have a field day.

I think that each and every care nurse for that patient, and each and every CNA who was on when the patient was in the room needs a verbal warning, and re-education on the responsibilities of basic patient care and comfort. This should not happen, and astounding that one would think that it is "someone else's job".

If it was your enviromental services responsibility in cleaning the room to also clean and remove the commode, then the person who cleaned the room and ok'ed it for an admission needs to be reprimanded as well.

It takes 2.2 minutes to take a commode into the bathroom and empty it. It takes perhaps 5 to bring it to where it needs to be. 10 if you spray it down.

So out of pure curiousity.....Is it still in the hall to this day?

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

It just blows my mind this is even a question. I agree with everyone here. Why would the pt have to keep asking for it to be removed for 2 days yet no one did anything about it. Everyone that was assigned to care for this pt is guilty. People make mistakes, I can see housekeeping "forgetting" but once it's brought to your attention, please do something about it. How hard is it to empty and remove??

My first post did not come out the way I wanted, it sounds like I am calling only the housekeeping staff slack when I am calling everyone that cared for the pt slack. Yes the BSC should have been cleaned prior to the new admit but since it wasn't, it should have been dealt with on the first request..

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It just blows my mind this is even a question. I agree with everyone here. Why would the pt have to keep asking for it to be removed for 2 days yet no one did anything about it. Everyone that was assigned to care for this pt is guilty. People make mistakes, I can see housekeeping "forgetting" but once it's brought to your attention, please do something about it. How hard is it to empty and remove??

My first post did not come out the way I wanted, it sounds like I am calling only the housekeeping staff slack when I am calling everyone that cared for the pt slack. Yes the BSC should have been cleaned prior to the new admit but since it wasn't, it should have been dealt with on the first request..

Agreed. Or at least when the admission nurse went into the room and the commode was even at bedside.....

It is literally making me gag.....closer reading says that the patient put the commode in the hall after day 2.....AND IT WAS STILL THERE ON DISCHARGE DAY.....what, a week later????

I can picture it "what is that awful smell" "oh it is the commode in the hall" "what is the commode doing in the hall" "That is CNA work" "Don't worry, I delegated it" "I'm not gonna touch it, you do it" "nooooo way, you do it...."

Akin to playground games of 6 year olds.

This facility will be lucky if the patient seeing the full commode where they left it however many days ago when they were discharged doesn't decide to call the state, JHACO, or some other agency to report this.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.
Agreed. Or at least when the admission nurse went into the room and the commode was even at bedside.....

It is literally making me gag.....closer reading says that the patient put the commode in the hall after day 2.....AND IT WAS STILL THERE ON DISCHARGE DAY.....what, a week later????

I can picture it "what is that awful smell" "oh it is the commode in the hall" "what is the commode doing in the hall" "That is CNA work" "Don't worry, I delegated it" "I'm not gonna touch it, you do it" "nooooo way, you do it...."

Akin to playground games of 6 year olds.

This facility will be lucky if the patient seeing the full commode where they left it however many days ago when they were discharged doesn't decide to call the state, JHACO, or some other agency to report this.

Yep, I'm right there with you. My thing is and OP, I am truly not knocking you but why would anyone worry about the "legal ramifications" of this. Instead, just do the right thing and it would not have been an issue.

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So why didn't YOU empty it?

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If this would have been a patient of mine, I would have been so embarrassed that I would have emptied it IMMEDIATELY!! That is crazy that the dirty commode went through all of that and then was STILL unhandled at d/c??? Whoa.

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Specializes in Pedi.

How did they both think the other one did it? No one actually bothered to look when the patient repeatedly said "please empty this gross urine." I doubt there are legal ramifications here but this has to be the most ridiculous scenario I've ever read. If a patient calls your attention to something like this, take 45 seconds to empty the urine and then move the commode to the dirty utility room. Housekeeping did not clean bedside commodes when I worked in the hospital... Nurses or CNAs had to move them to the dirty utility room and then wipe them down if another patient needed them.

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Specializes in Gerontology.
scenario: patient in a room in a hospital 2 days with a bedside commode with someone else's urine in it. asked several times for it to be removed instead was just moved around the room "out of the way" and come back in a minute...2 days later the patient put the urine filled bedside commode out in the hallway, where it was still sitting when the patient was discharged. nurse thought the tech did it the tech thought the nurse did it...no one took ownership...

Disgusting! That poor patient. I would have been making heads roll if that happened to me. Every single person who was in that room should be very ashamed.

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