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Suit: Fill-in nurse contributed to patient death
Quality Improvement Monitor, March 14, 2008
The practice of hospitals routinely hiring outside nurses to fill in for regular staff has come under scrutiny in Florida after the death of a patient who fell from his bed in a Plantation hospital emergency room, according to The Sun-Sentinel.
William T. Fain, 80, suffered a seizure and came into the ER in February of 2006, his family said in lawsuit filed last month, the paper reported. Doctors ordered nurses to put up bedrails to prevent him from falling and check on him frequently.
The suit alleges the agency nurse did none of those things, The Sun-Sentinel said. The patient spent 12 hours in the ER and shortly after his family left, he fell, hitting his head. He suffered brain damage and died two weeks later, the family said in the lawsuit.
About one in eight registered nurses in Florida hospitals were agency fill-ins, a survey found last year, the paper reported.
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