Discussion Board 1
Video Link: https://youtu.be/b2DQg7JNwKI
After viewing the video, please answer the following two questions (do not respond in a question/answer format.
References are used to support your ideas/thoughts.
How could Josie’s death have been prevented, and what process changes would you recommend in preventing a similar tragedy from occurring?
Put yourself in the shoes of one of the clinicians who cared for Josie.
How would you have reacted when Sorrel said, “You did this to her and now you must fix her”
Josie was a healthy 11-year-old girl who had been admitted to hospital for a routine tonsillectomy.
She was caught in the middle of an internal health service dispute that led to confusion and ultimately, her death.
This case study highlights many of the factors that contributed to Josie’s tragic demise, and how they could have been prevented if they had been better communicated between medical staff at the hospital.
A failure of communication between doctors, nurses, administrative staff and parents.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you don’t communicate with each other, you’re going to have a problem.”
This is especially true when it comes to medical situations like Josie’s.
If a doctor or nurse doesn’t know what another person is doing and why they are doing it—and that person doesn’t get their questions answered—there will be confusion on both sides.
In Josie’s case, doctors were unaware that their patients were in need of care; nurses didn’t know about Josie’s condition either because she was not getting appropriate medications or treatments; administrative staff was not informed about her situation in time for them to make any changes that could have saved her life; parents weren’t told anything at all until after she died (if then).
The lack of appropriate clinical care for a severely ill patient.
The lack of appropriate clinical care for a severely ill patient.
It is well known that Josie had been experiencing severe gastrointestinal problems and chronic pain, but her primary care doctor did not recognize this as an indication for hospitalization or treatment.
In fact, he was not even aware that Josie was being treated by another physician at the time of her death. The failure to recognize these signs as indicators of a potentially life-threatening condition may have played a role in Josie’s passing.
A lack of involvement by senior staff in the management of this case.
The lack of senior staff involvement in this case is a serious concern.
Senior staff should be involved in all aspects of the management and care of an adult patient, including their daily activities, medication management and other relevant issues.
In Josie’s case it would appear that no one was consulted about her medication being stopped or what changes were made to her care plan when she went into hospital for treatment for abdominal pain which turned out to be unrelated to her pancreatitis symptoms.
This lack of involvement could have contributed significantly towards Josie’s death by delaying medical decision making regarding further investigations that could have identified the cause(s) behind Josie’s rapidly deteriorating condition prior to admission into hospital
An inappropriate discharge against medical advice from an emergency department.
- An inappropriate discharge against medical advice from an emergency department.
- The patient was discharged without any plan for follow up care.
- The patient was discharged without any plan for ongoing care.
- The patient was discharged without any plan for ongoing treatment.
A failure to fully document the clinical course of a critically unwell patient.
- A failure to fully document the clinical course of a critically unwell patient.
- Josie was a patient with multiple medical problems, including those related to her heart and lungs. These were not adequately addressed by her GP or hospital doctors. There is no record of their treatment plan, nor any details on how they treated Josie’s symptoms—and even if they did manage to treat some of them successfully, there’s no way of knowing whether this would have prevented Josie’s death in another way (for example: if she’d been given antibiotics sooner).
- The need for a complete medical history for Josie meant that doctors had little idea what might have made her ill or how best to treat it; this lack of information can often lead directly into subsequent mistakes like poor decision making around treatment plans and missed opportunities for early intervention (such as giving antibiotics).
We need better communication practices among individuals in the healthcare industry
The truth is that communication is key to good patient care and preventing medical errors, malpractice and negligence.
The healthcare industry needs to implement better practices in order to prevent Josie from happening again.
Conclusion
We have a lot of work to do, but we can all do our part. Improved communication between staff and patients is essential for the safety of everyone involved in healthcare.
We may not be able to prevent every case like Josie’s, but we need to make sure that when one does happen it is remembered and lessons learnt from this tragedy