Risk Management Perspective
Policy/Procedure: Policies and procedures need to be up-to-date and meet current guidelines.
Implementation: At orientation, and periodically, educate residents, family members, and staff regarding appropriate record keeping. If questions develop, residents’ family members or staff should alert a supervisor or senior management.
Audit: Conduct internal and external audits to ensure facility documentation is accurate.
In the first week of a trial in Massachusetts federal court for six former employees of a New England compounding center, whose contaminated drugs sparked a deadly meningitis outbreak in 2012, the question of who bears responsibility for fake patient names used on prescription order forms has been a daily point of contention. During the third trial, repeating a scene from his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney George Varghese read off names of celebrities and cartoon characters that were listed on various compounding center order forms in 2010 and 2011: Silver Surfer, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robert Redford, Ace Ventura, and more. Eventually, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns cut in. “I think we get the point,” the judge said.
