Hospital Errors - Frightening and Maddening!

[lsyorke]

DR: It looks like you have pneumonia related to your HIV.
MIL: What?!?!?
DR: Pneumonia related to your HIV
MIL: Are you saying I have HIV?
DR: Yeah (said it kind of mockingly in a "duh" sort of way)
DR: Have you ever been tested?
MIL: Yes, in 1995
DR: Okay

Then the doctor left. Then nurses started coming in to give MIL all kinds of HIV/ AIDS literature. MIL had to sign documents saying she received all of this. She had to sign documents saying it was okay for them to bill her insurance and tell them the diagnosis. She kept asking to speak for the doctor and they kept telling her "Just a minute," but he never came. They finally admitted her into the hospital and left her there alone until the next morning.

Did she ever tell the doctor or anyone else that she tested negative?

You should not have been left alone.

And who did he think should have been with her? Look, I'm not saying that they should have jumped to conclusions, but if you see pneumocystis, the first thought is HIV, unless the patient has been recently tested negative. I love doctors who make statements(like the one quoted above) which make no sense at all. Who did he think should have stayed with her? It's a statement that makes the medical profession look bad, when in reality it's a "make the family feel better" nonsensical statement. People who get bad diagnosis' don't get someone assigned to sit with them.

 

[Bastiansmom]

Did she ever tell the doctor or anyone else that she tested negative?

She was very sick, tired, probably heavily medicated, and was definitely not in her right mind. Like I said, she REPEATEDLY asked to speak to the doctor and they (nurses, CNA, etc) kept telling her he was on his way, but he never came.

And who did he think should have been with her? Look, I'm not saying that they should have jumped to conclusions, but if you see pneumocystis, the first thought is HIV, unless the patient has been recently tested negative. I love doctors who make statements(like the one quoted above) which make no sense at all. Who did he think should have stayed with her? It's a statement that makes the medical profession look bad, when in reality it's a "make the family feel better" nonsensical statement. People who get bad diagnosis' don't get someone assigned to sit with them.

I may have been a little confusing in my inital post, but she (or I) did not take his statement as "a nurse should have camped out with you all night long" but more along the lines of "someone should have been available for you to talk to so you were not still hysterical 12 hours later."
So the doctor that actual talked "to" her and not "at" her was in the wrong? Was the ER doc justified in giving her awful news because it is the "usual" diagnosis? The ER doctor had no responsibility to verify he diagnosis before presenting it? This reminds me of the previous threads where a doctor wanted to perform a D&C on a still living baby. I guess doctors have the right to jump to conclusions, just because they are doctors. It doesn't matter who they hurt.

To anyone who has suffered long standing consequences from a doctor/ hospitals mistake, I am truly sorry. This story in now way compares, but I thought I would share.

Also, I have nothing against 99.9% of doctors / nurses/ hospitals/ etc. I just don't like this DR or ER staff on that one night. To all of you who are in this field, thank you.

 

[cm8]

I an an RN and I work with the IT department and as a regular staff nurse at my hospital and one of the biggest battles we fight is reminding people that the computer does not take the place of critical thinking, being careful and paying attention to what you are doing.

Properly utilized, the computer can be a godsend. The orders entered are clear, concise and legible (no trying to figure out MD's chicken scratch anymore) but the onus is on the ordering MD/PA/APRN to choose the correct order or group of orders. The onus us secondarily on the nurses/therapists/pharmacists who check and/or carry out the orders to question anything that seems unusual and to step back and research if a patient says "This seems wrong" or "The dovtor told me this but you are doing that".

As a nurse, I can tell you that no one goes into work trying to injure or harm someone. It's not a goal of ours. Yes, there are bad healthcare people, just like there are bad teachers, lawyers, bankers, cops, firemen etc...but the majority of healthcare workers TRY to do good things for people. But we are human, and mistakes will be made and one just hopes that the mistake does not cause undue harm. It is pretty much every healthcare person's nightmare to harm a patient. Generally, when an error occurs, it is because a system boke down, not because a worker had decided to intentionally harm someone.

At my hospital, we are contantly looking at ways to improve systems so that we lessen the number of errors...in the past few years we have done a good job of using checklists etc. so that every person does the same process the same way (ie- a pre-operative checklist to make sure all aspects required to be in place prior to surgery are in place). Healthcare is taking a lot of cues from aviation, where there are very few errors despite being a high risk field.

I always get sad when our "human-ness" gets in the way of successfully helping a patient.

Agreed!