Compliance Perspective:
Failure to follow advance directives can result in significant potential for litigation and compliance exposures.
The family of a 52-year-old woman residing in a Highland Park nursing home has brought suit against the nursing home because staff members did not try to revive the woman when they discovered her unresponsive. Additionally, the suit alleges that the staff misread the resident’s chart as indicating “do not resuscitate,” and they did not call EMTs for medical assistance.
The incident was captured on video and shows that three staff members went into the room after the woman’s vital readings were indicating a worsened condition, but none of them did anything to alert other staff that the woman needed emergency treatment. There was “no CPR, no code blue was called and nobody called 911 until 30 minutes after the woman was found unresponsive and then it was too late.
Even though the incident was captured on video and it shows clearly that no efforts to respond were made by staff, the nursing home denies any wrong doing or negligence in providing care.
The family of the resident have said that the reason they have entered into this lawsuit will help to improve nursing care and to support the implementation of video surveillance in nursing homes.
The process for indicating whether a resident does not wish to be resuscitated is indicated on the paperwork a nurse completes when they are admitted by checking a box. This paperwork and also the resident’s chart are readily accessible. It is believed in this case that either the staff failed to check the resident’s chart or paperwork; or, they misread the resident’s chart.
The Illinois Department of Public Health investigated this case and as a result of their investigation, they have issued a declaration that requires all residents that do not wish to be resuscitated should we wear a pink bracelet in order to flag that fact for caregivers.
(Information taken from an article in The National Law Review)
