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Hospital 50 percent at fault for poor discharge planning

Case Management Weekly, February 17, 2004

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Months after it paid a large settlement to a patient, a hospital in Oklahoma is now holding monthly discharge planning case study education sessions for physicians, nurses, and case managers. It's a requirement according to the hospital's chief executive.

Here's a synopsis of a case presented at a session in January: A patient's widow and children won a medical malpractice action against a vascular surgeon, alleging that the surgeon gave inadequate discharge instructions. The day prior to the patient's discharge, the doctor ordered a pressure dressing to stop the patient's ulcer from bleeding. The dressing should have been removed 24 hours before discharge, but it wasn't. Instead, the patient was discharged and later died from the bleeding. The doctor in the case told the patient to call his doctor if the bleeding resurfaced, but the patient never called. However, the doctor never warned the patient in the discharge instructions that he shouldn't be left alone. The 19th District Court in the case from East Baton Rouge, LA, ruled that the patient was 50 percent at fault.

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