Kentucky Nursing
Home and Pharmacy Settle Lawsuit Over
Resident’s
Death for Nearly $13 Million
Six years after the 2013 death of a 68-year old resident in a Kentucky nursing home and two days before the case was to go to trial, the man’s estate and the accused parties agreed to a settlement—$11 million from the nursing home and $1.9 million from the pharmacy, which will be paid to his surviving wife and two sons.
The lawsuit claimed that the nursing home and the pharmacy were both responsible for the resident’s death due to his not being given the prescribed antibiotics for an infection for four weeks after being admitted to the nursing home.
The resident had been hospitalized for an infection and was receiving antibiotics for two weeks prior to his being admitted to the nursing home. His medication orders directed that he continue receiving the antibiotics for an additional four weeks, after which time he was expected to return to his home. However, he was never given any antibiotics during the entire 24 days he was in the nursing home, even though the nursing home staff documented that he received the ordered antibiotic medications twice a day.
The pharmacy was charged in the suit for failing to follow-up and ensure that the resident was receiving the prescribed antibiotics.
When the infection returned, the resident died, but his family did not learn about the circumstances of his death until six weeks later.
The 5-star rated nursing home’s chief marketing officer issued this statement in an e-mail—the nursing home is “hopeful the settlement and resolution will bring solace to the family.” She called the resident’s death an “isolated incident,” and further stated, “we reviewed then and continually evaluate every aspect of our services to prevent something like this from happening.”
Compliance Perspective
Failure to ensure that the prescribed medication orders for residents transferred from hospitals are obtained and provided and that staff documentation does not falsely indicate that medications have been administered to residents when they have not, may be considered provision of substandard quality of care, immediate jeopardy, and a violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures regarding follow-up protocols for ensuring that residents are provided their ordered medications in connection with their transfers from hospitals to the facility.
- Train staff on the policies and procedures for follow-up review of medication orders for residents transferred from hospitals to ensure that those medications are received, administered, and accurately documented.
- Periodically audit the medication orders of newly admitted residents to verify that ordered medications have been received from the pharmacy and are being given to the residents.
