Thread by @purplemamabear

Addressing #PatientSafety in Healthcare:

I received a call tonight from a mother whose adult daughter was brought via ambulance to the ER. She was in the middle of #pancreas flare. She is 19 & is living with bf. He is the one that made the call. She was in the bath at time 1/

and due to pain and nausea could not get out. Paramedics took her from tub. She had no clothes on (totally understand this was emergency). During transport to ER ketamine and fentanyl were administered. Once at ER she was NOT taken back to bay, instead she was 2/

placed in the lobby on chair. She was left alone in lobby. Her bf was there but no one was monitoring vitals or reactions of medication. The young woman was disoriented. Her boyfriend unsure what to do. While they are ‘adults’ they are young 18/19. The young women 3/

threw up. The only action taken by staff was to place a towel over the throw up 🤢. Finally the bf called this young women’s parents. The father made his way to ER. I also want to note that this young women did NOT have clothes on. She had a blanket given by paramedics 4/

Her father, very upset, tried to discharge. At this time she was still not in back but had been ‘checked in’ by a nurse. The nurse refused to discharge her or have doctor discharge so father left with daughter AMA. Mother followed up with hospital/ER today filing a 5/

complaint. She received a call back but was told they could not proceed until her daughter gave permission. Understandable she is of age. The mother did comment how it was interesting that they wanted to follow protocol when related to HIPAA but not in regards to actual tx 6/

Yes snide remark but I totally understand. When she called me her concern was trust. She indicated that she felt hospitals were more interested in covering their butts than truly addressing issues. Sadly this has been my experience also. I find little value in 7/

#patientrepresentatives. The mother indicated to me she just wanted the matter addressed and that this would never occur again. She did not want to sue but sadly there seems to be a cloak of secrecy that patients often experiences with events such as this. The ‘complaint’ is 8/

made and addressed but often we as #patients and #caregivers don’t know how it was resolved or the safeguards in place so a situation such as this does not occur again. I get mistakes are made, in this case I think it’s a ‘bit more’ than a mistake. It’s critical 9/

that families have that follow up. That they know that there has been steps taken, what those steps are so such a scenario will not occur but usually that is not the case. This is where trust erodes. How can we do this better? There has to be a way. This mother just 10/

wants this never to happen again. She wants to be assured that steps are taken (she also does not want insurance to be billed which is fair). This was pretty blatant error but there are mistakes that are just that. How can #patients, #caregivers & hospitals and clinics 11/

work together to improve patient safety ? 12/