Work incident of the hair curling variety!!!
We were told that our Departmental Matron was asked to take an outlier who was post surgery and undergoing a check angiogram but needed to be moved to make way for a more acute patient. She agreed and the patient duly came to us, we had no idea who to expect or when to expect him and when he arrived no handover on his past history was given.
It turned out that he had just undergone the surgery which was a femoral angioplasty so he was not having a check angiogram at all. He came with his notes but apart from a consent form there was nothing written. It also transpired when I attempted to transfer him to our ward on the computer system that he had undergone this procedure without being admitted and without any wrist bands or checking of his current details vis a vis next of kin etc...in fact no next of kin was listed in his notes or on the system because no one had thought to ask him. It transpired further that the GP he was shown as registered with on the system was not his current GP.
We still had no idea whose team he was under for the angioplasty and who we should call if he had an adverse reaction following his surgery. After much detective work on my part I discovered who was responsible for him and called them to let them know that their patient was with us, and also to alert them to the fact that he was very drowsy and unresponsive for the most part and had horror of horrors been operated on without being admitted.
The registrar was so disinterested it was not funny - though he was interested in making it my fault and in telling me that I had no right to contact him with my 'stupid' questions (when was the decision taken to admit the patient and for what procedure, who had accepted responsibility for his care for this visit) all of which were to gain the information I needed to admit him on the system retrospectively.
He ranted for a full 20 minutes before he would give me the information and all but told me I was a jumped up stupid administrator and that it was beneath him to speak to the likes of me, also that he had been here for 18 months and no one had ever told him that patients needed to be admitted before a procedure. (!! I don't actually believe that one but he was an obnoxious ass so ...)
I got the guy some wristbands and after coaxing the relevant information about next of kin and GP out of him admitted him 7 hours after he'd had an anaesthetic and then...the doctor deigned to come and clerk him for admission...so very Alice Through The Looking Glass!!!!.
I then submitted and incident form detailing all of this, and was rewarded three days later with an email saying that it was felt that this was a minor incident!!!
After me pointing out yet again that initially we were given false information, then no information and that the team responsible for the patient's care had no idea he had been admitted or where in the hospital he was until I got to the bottom of it they upgraded it to 'Moderate' - but I still don't know what action will be taken to prevent this from happening again.
So that was Monday!!!
Tuesday I got nothing much done due to constant phone calls for one patient - I actually seemed to spend the day acting as his social secretary. Today however was better.
I got the minutes to the ward meeting typed up at last, got rid of 30 files to the Consultant's secretaries and anther 8 to medical records. Got all my loose filing organised and now I just have to tackle the 46 files in my discharge box before Friday afternoon!!!
YAY ( I do love my job but it really is busy busy busy.)
It turned out that he had just undergone the surgery which was a femoral angioplasty so he was not having a check angiogram at all. He came with his notes but apart from a consent form there was nothing written. It also transpired when I attempted to transfer him to our ward on the computer system that he had undergone this procedure without being admitted and without any wrist bands or checking of his current details vis a vis next of kin etc...in fact no next of kin was listed in his notes or on the system because no one had thought to ask him. It transpired further that the GP he was shown as registered with on the system was not his current GP.
We still had no idea whose team he was under for the angioplasty and who we should call if he had an adverse reaction following his surgery. After much detective work on my part I discovered who was responsible for him and called them to let them know that their patient was with us, and also to alert them to the fact that he was very drowsy and unresponsive for the most part and had horror of horrors been operated on without being admitted.
The registrar was so disinterested it was not funny - though he was interested in making it my fault and in telling me that I had no right to contact him with my 'stupid' questions (when was the decision taken to admit the patient and for what procedure, who had accepted responsibility for his care for this visit) all of which were to gain the information I needed to admit him on the system retrospectively.
He ranted for a full 20 minutes before he would give me the information and all but told me I was a jumped up stupid administrator and that it was beneath him to speak to the likes of me, also that he had been here for 18 months and no one had ever told him that patients needed to be admitted before a procedure. (!! I don't actually believe that one but he was an obnoxious ass so ...)
I got the guy some wristbands and after coaxing the relevant information about next of kin and GP out of him admitted him 7 hours after he'd had an anaesthetic and then...the doctor deigned to come and clerk him for admission...so very Alice Through The Looking Glass!!!!.
I then submitted and incident form detailing all of this, and was rewarded three days later with an email saying that it was felt that this was a minor incident!!!
After me pointing out yet again that initially we were given false information, then no information and that the team responsible for the patient's care had no idea he had been admitted or where in the hospital he was until I got to the bottom of it they upgraded it to 'Moderate' - but I still don't know what action will be taken to prevent this from happening again.
So that was Monday!!!
Tuesday I got nothing much done due to constant phone calls for one patient - I actually seemed to spend the day acting as his social secretary. Today however was better.
I got the minutes to the ward meeting typed up at last, got rid of 30 files to the Consultant's secretaries and anther 8 to medical records. Got all my loose filing organised and now I just have to tackle the 46 files in my discharge box before Friday afternoon!!!
YAY ( I do love my job but it really is busy busy busy.)