Re: Insulin for someone who is not diabetic


"Michelle C." <bookbug2005@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1180752665.337363.174730@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On May 31, 9:05 pm, "MaryL" <stanco...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
This is OT (or at least partly OT), although it involves insulin. I'm
really writing to vent, but it may also serve as a word of warning about
what *could* happen. Here's what happened today...

My mother is in the hospital again. She was released about three weeks
ago
after a week in the hospital for pneumonia, but she has been coughing
continuously -- deep, terrible coughs, almost spasms. She had a doctor's
appointment yesterday, and he gave her different prescriptions. Then, he
called the nursing home this morning and had her taken to the hospital
for a
chest X-Ray and then returned to the nursing home. This afternoon, he
called the nursing home and said he wanted her transferred to the
hospital
by ambulance. We are going to have her seen by a pulmonary specialist
and
try to get to the bottom of all this. While we were waiting for the
ambulance, for some reason I thought to ask the nurse, "You do have the
ambulance scheduled to take her to Hospital A, don't you?" Well, it's a
good thing I asked because her doctor practices at Hospital A, but they
were
going to send her to Hospital B!! They still had Hospital B on her
records
from when she first entered the nursing home even though they knew about
the
change in doctors and had even sent her to the correct hospital a month
ago
when she was hospitalized with pneumonia. We got that straightened out,
and
I contacted the DON to have her records corrected.

That was the LEAST of what happened, though, in my day of worries.

Here's the rest of it...I was really glad that Mother was hospitalized
because I think she needs that type of care right now. However, I am
very
distressed at something that happened at the hospital. It's just sheer
good
luck that I noticed it. I was giving Mother some water and glanced down
at
the food tray that was still beside her bed. At that time, I noticed
that
the instructions were for a diabetic diet. A diabetic diet would not
hurt
her, but she is supposed to be on mechanical soft/no salt added. So far,
I
was just puzzled but not concerned. I went to the nurses' station to
check
on it, and -- again, good fortune smiled on me -- I glanced down and saw
a
piece of her paperwork there. It listed diabetes as one of Mother's
diagnoses. I immediately told the nurse that she does *not* have
diabetes
and learned that Mother was scheduled for insulin!!! It took me about 10
minutes to convince them that she does *not* have diabetes. They kept
saying, "she gets insulin," "she gets Actos," "are you sure she doesn't
get
lantus?" etc. etc. etc. Finally, they believed me and agreed to call the
doctor -- but couldn't reach him. They couldn't give me any idea how
long
it would take for a call-back, but they agreed to put the insulin on
hold.
They said, "We can do that."

I am really horrified by this whole sequence. Something like that could
have killed Mother. She is 91 years old, has been essentially bedridden
for
five years, and is very frail. Incidentally, they had Mother scheduled
for
insulin (which she should not have), but they did *not* have anything on
her
chart for her cough (and that's why she is in the hospital). She is
scheduled to see a pulmonary specialist tomorrow, but I am also wondering
if
they mixed her records with another patient. In that case, is there
another
patient who is diabetic but is not being treated? The nurses insist that
is
not the case. They say the orders came direct from the doctor. They are
documenting everything, and I am going to be at the hospital at 6:30
tomorrow morning when the doctor usually starts his rounds. I would,
anyway, but this makes it *essential* that I see him.

MaryL

Mary,

Unfortunately, records to get mis-filed, and this sounds like what
happened to your mom and another patient who is obviously diabetic.
When I was a lab tech, as a rule, we filed the lab work in the
patients chart. However, one evening when I was charting I had three
reports left. One nurse was taking care of all three patients and she
asked me if it would be all right if she filed the lab work results
because she wanted to review them first. I thought the fact that she
was interested in the lab work was a good thing, and we had no rule at
that time that charting had to be done by the lab personnel.

Within the next few days we had a lab meeting, and to my horror, I
found out the nurse had misfiled the lab work and a patient who was
not diabetic was treated as though she was. At that lab meeting, it
was decided that no one else but the lab personnel would be allowed to
file the lab results. We irked a few doctors after that who wanted us
to just put the lab work of all their patients in a "pile" for their
review. However, we just told them that it was hospital policy that
the lab personnel must file the lab work.

I can't quite feature how this mistake with your mom came about, but
they need to figure it out.

Sorry to hear that your mom is so ill. Hang in there, Mary.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2
diet & exercise



Thanks, everyone. You have given me several good suggestions.

Michelle, I had the same concerns as you expressed. Once we had a hold
placed on my mother's medication, I begain to worry that there might be a
diabetic patient in the hospital who was *not* receiving needed insulin
because of the mixup. As it turns out, her doctor has taken responsibility
for the diabetes fiasco. He inadvertently attached an extra page when he
faxed her records to the hospital. This is still as source of worry, but at
least he did not try to hide it to pawn the blame onto someone else. On the
other hand, he said he discovered it for himself about 7:30 that evening
when he was reviewing her records. That means that either the hospital or
the doctor on call did *not* notify him promptly because I had discovered
the problem much earlier and insisted that the hospital contact him to
verify what I was telling them (no diabetes). Fortunately, the hospital had
put it "on hold" until he could be contacted. And, of course, they would
have tested her BG before dispensing the insulin.

MaryL
..


.

Relevant Pages

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