Mistakes in the hospital are not uncommon, and therefore each case requires legal proceedings. At West Suffolk Hospital, 57-year-old Susan Warby died of a miscarriage a few weeks after bowel surgery (Dyer, 2020). After a bowel perforation, the patient was given glucose instead of the regular saline drip. After that, the nurse noticed a high sugar level in the patient’s blood. However, instead of testing the drop, she gave the patient insulin to lower his glucose levels. The patient had been on a drip for about 36 hours by this time.
The family’s reaction was immediate, and the patient’s husband, John Warby, called those responsible to account. However, he did not demand harsh justice and did not wish the guilty badly. In his statement, John Warby mentioned that after he found out about his wife’s treatment errors, he wanted to know what had led to this. Moreover, he said that he needed a report on what measures the hospital was taking to avoid such unfortunate incidents in the future. At the same time, the victim notes that the hospital reported several changes in the system that satisfied the plaintiff. John Warby didn’t ask for punitive damages after his wife’s death. He wanted to know that the staff was doing everything possible to prevent such situations.
Initially, the hospital pleaded not guilty, and a lengthy investigation was underway. However, one of the workers sent a revealing letter to the victim’s husband, indicating all the mistakes made during the treatment. The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust described the situation as a data breach, resulting in an audit of all personnel began. At the same time, representatives of the hospital resorted to legal advice since the case required serious consideration. However, after an investigation, the hospital pleaded guilty to the patient’s death. They apologized to the victim’s husband and announced that they had introduced new measures and guarantees to prevent such incidents.
Since the case turned out to be severe and related to the death of a patient, the police were involved in the investigation. In this regard, the doctors who performed the operations and the nurses who cared for the patient were the first to be informed about the incident. After that, the Healthcare Administrator was notified about the incident and passed the information on to the Chief Executive Officer. The problem seriously escalated after the anonymous letter, which led to the problem of each employee and their responsibility for what happened.
The hospital administrator plays an essential role in reporting and escalating complaints. Firstly, his duties include the regulation of conflicts that have arisen based on treatment (Gupta et al., 2018). The administrator needs an explicit consideration of the problem and clarification of customer complaints. Moreover, he is in charge of a division of the hospital. This means that any complaints in the first place reach the administrator as a responsible person. Incidents involving the death of a patient or resulting in serious health problems can adversely affect organizational performance (Trakulsunti et al., 2020). Thus, this leads to the conclusion that he failed to organize the activities of the staff in such a way as to avoid severe consequences due to errors.
Additionally, part of the Susan Warby incident can be referred to the board of trustees. The Council is obliged to consider and approve the measures to prevent mistakes in the future. Moreover, he must communicate with the victim’s husband for a more successful resolution of the conflict. Without the board’s input, the situation cannot be resolved since it includes the death of the patient and the subsequent leakage of data. Thus, the board undertakes to communicate with the press and government officials and take part in the investigation of the case.
References
Dyer, C. (2020). Hospital errors led to patient’s death, finds coroner. BMJ, 37(2), 1. Web.
Gupta, A., Snyder, A., Kachalia, A., Flanders, S., Saint, S., & Chopra, V. (2018). Malpractice claims related to diagnostic errors in the hospital. BMJ Quality & Safety, 27(1), 53-60.
Trakulsunti, Y., Antony, J., Dempsey, M., & Brennan, A. (2020). Reducing medication errors using lean six sigma methodology in a Thai hospital: an action research study. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 38(1), 339-362. Web.