Assignment Felony Charge for Fatal Medical Error
Assignment: Felony Charge for Fatal Medical Error
The article is http://asq.org/qualitynews/qnt/execute/displaySetup?newsID=1056, Assignment: Felony Charge for Fatal Medical Error
Medical Ethics Advisor
February 2, 2007
A Wisconsin nurse who was arrested on a felony charge stemming from an unintentional medical error that led to the death of a patient last summer will serve three years of probation after pleading no contest to reduced charges, but medical and nursing societies are concerned about the effect the case might have in future medical error situations.
Julie Thao was a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, WI, in the summer of 2006 when 16-year-old Jasmine Gant was admitted to give birth. Through a series of actions, shortcuts, and omissions, all of which Thao accepted responsibility for at her sentencing in December, she mistakenly gave Gant an epidural anesthetic (Buvipacaine) intravenously. Gant was supposed to receive an IV antibiotic for a strep infection. Within minutes of receiving the epidural IV, Gant suffered seizures and died. Her child, a boy, was delivered by emergency Caesarean section and survived.
According to the investigator’s report, Thao:
�improperly removed the epidural bag from a locked storage system without authorization or permission;
�did not scan the bar code on the epidural bag, which would have told her it was the wrong drug;
�ignored a bright pink warning label on the bag that stated the drug was for epidural administration only; and
. �disregarded St. Mary’s “5 rights” rule for drug administration � right patient, right route, right medication, right dose, and right time.
News reports quoted Thao saying, “This was my mistake, everything was my fault” at the time of her plea. She will serve three years on probation, her license has been suspended for nine months, and should she return to nursing (she was fired from St. Mary’s), she will face close scrutiny of her hours and work performance.
Despite the action by the state nursing board in chastising Thao and suspending her license, medical and nursing associations have been almost unanimous in protesting the felony criminal charges in a case of a mistake.
“It is imperative that all health care professionals do everything possible to ensure that medical errors do not happen. Patient safety is critical,” according to Ruth Heitz, JD, general counsel to the Wisconsin Medical Society. “But to use the criminal justice system in this unprecedented manner to prosecute acts of unintentional medical errors is likely to have a chilling effect on the practice of medicine.
“Humans make mistakes. That is an unfortunate reality.”
Assignment Felony Charge for Fatal Medical Error
St. Mary’s Hospital faced regulatory action and possible loss of its Medicare contract in the wake of Gant’s death, but the violations were retracted when St. Mary’s initiated staff re-education programs to address the issues that led to the error.
State and federal regulatory and licensing agencies’ investigations “will improve the safety and quality of care” at Wisconsin hospitals and “will have a profound impact on the hospital, hospital staff” and Thao, according to Dana Richardson, RN, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
“We are concerned, however, that unlike the other agencies involved in this case, actions by the [Department of Justice charging Thao] will actually have a negative impact statewide on the accessibility to and quality of care provided in Wisconsin,” says Richardson. “Health professionals enter health care knowing that a mistake could cost them their license, livelihood, and financial stability. What is incomprehensible is entering a career where a single error could lead to imprisonment.”
The state nursing board has suggested that Thao was overworked on the day of the error. She had worked a 16-hour shift that ended at midnight the previous day, and slept at the hospital so she could be back on duty at 7 a.m. Gant’s death occurred shortly after noon.
As part of the sanction by the state board, if Thao returns to work as a nurse, she cannot work more than 12 hours a day, and she is limited in the areas of hospital nursing she can practice.
Prepare a Microsoft� PowerPoint� presentation with detailed speaker notes that discusses a current legal issue from the news media or your own professional practice, affecting an individual or group of nurses. For confidentiality reasons, do not use real names from your own practice. Examples of legal issues include the following:
Include the following in your presentation:
�Judicial process and health care laws
�Professional standards of practice
�Malpractice and disciplinary action issues
�Ethical issues
�Issues surrounding appropriate documentation
�Nursing practice act requirements
�At least three peer reviewed references from scholarly journals in the University Library.
NOTE !!!
This is a group work and below is my assigned portion
Slide 1: Issues surrounding appropriate documentation
Slide 2: Nursing practice act requirements
Slide3: Conclusion Assignment: Felony Charge for Fatal Medical Error
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to.
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.
Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.
If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.
Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
