What would you do in this situation? This post contains nanas

[Crispin]

The fact they told you about the incident is a miracle in itself.
From my experience staff in care homes often don't report mistakes like that.

Once, in a BUPA care home no less, a foreign worker forgot to replace my nans oxygen supply after changing the cylinder. She was without this supply of oxygen for 24hrs before it was noticed. As someone who had serious emphezyma, we were utterly shocked.

In a case like that we had no choice but to complain.

I personally would say report anything. Care homes get away with a lot and personally if someones career gets ruined due to their gross negligence its their own fault.

If there was a genuine mistake which wasn't serious / life threatening then fair enough, further training and guidance should be given.

Giving someone the wrong meds is not a minor error and they should be pulled up on it.

[reggiep]

I think we are off to see her tomorrow and get a feel for how the home are dealing with the situation. I don't think it should be a knee jerk reaction from us along the lines of "where there's blame there's a claim" but I think we will look at how we can make sure it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for all the suggestions and support.

[Pyroman]

The fact they told you about the incident is a miracle in itself.
From my experience staff in care homes often don't report mistakes like that.

Once, in a BUPA care home no less, a foreign worker forgot to replace my nans oxygen supply after changing the cylinder. She was without this supply of oxygen for 24hrs before it was noticed. As someone who had serious emphezyma, we were utterly shocked.

In a case like that we had no choice but to complain.

I personally would say report anything. Care homes get away with a lot and personally if someones career gets ruined due to their gross negligence its their own fault.

If there was a genuine mistake which wasn't serious / life threatening then fair enough, further training and guidance should be given.

Giving someone the wrong meds is not a minor error and they should be pulled up on it.

I agree, it's a 2 second job to check a name against a list of tablets it shouldn't have happened i'm not saying go for money from them but it has to be reported, had it been someone else with different problems it could potentially kill someone

[elsiegee40]

In hospital, when nurses do the drug round, there are 2nurses working together... ione reads out what she's giving and the other checks against the patient notes that it's correct. Surely, the home should be doing something similar?

PS witch - I read it as 'yellow fruit' as well!

[JJonas]

In my wifes nursing home (shes not an resident she works there) they have blister packs made up for each patient by the local pharmacy. Each pack contains all of the drugs needed for the patient durring that time period (morning,lunch.teatime etc) they are colour coded for the different time periods So you cant giive a patient their morning medication at night and they also have the name of the patient, DOB, expiry date and the name of the pharmacist preparing the pack printed on it.

If you want to complain you should start here. Commission for Social Care Inspection - Homepage

[mark]

they have blister packs made up for each patient by the local pharmacy

Could do with that for my Mum who's suddenly lost her short term memory. Wonder if they do that for anyone??

[tomscaper]

I think if you don't report it, then next time someone else may not be so lucky. Yes maybe it was an accident, but that person really should be making certain the right medication is given to the right patient.

If the outcome was different, yes it was an accident but you were not so lucky this time, would you still want to just keep it quiet and say it was an accident. Same thing happened but it was the outcome that was different, doesn't make the mistake an less serious.

[Edu-IT]

In my wifes nursing home (shes not an resident she works there) they have blister packs made up for each patient by the local pharmacy. Each pack contains all of the drugs needed for the patient durring that time period (morning,lunch.teatime etc) they are colour coded for the different time periods So you cant giive a patient their morning medication at night and they also have the name of the patient, DOB, expiry date and the name of the pharmacist preparing the pack printed on it.

If you want to complain you should start here. Commission for Social Care Inspection - Homepage

Somebody I know used to own and run a a residential care home and that is how it worked their too with the odd exception.

In your situation I would do what I could to make sure such mistake didn't happen again as the next person may not be so lucky.

[goaliepride]

I'd make sure the person responsible knows the severity of the situation, which it sounds like they are already aware. Past that the only thing you would get out of going further is self gratification. IMHO

[Red_Barchetta]

Long ago when I was a nurse, it always had to be 2 members of staff giving out drugs. One to check the other. Surely a care home should have some similar procedure/protocol in place? If a patient couldn't confirm their name, we had to check their ID bracelet to make sure it was the right person.

I would want an enquiry held into what happened if that were my relative.