One type of dispute that a nurse attorney can handle is complaints related to incompleteness and inaccuracies in medical record documentation. Rest assured that these legal experts will get you through the entire proceedings and will give you a favorable verdict.
An RN had worked for five (5) years and six (6) months as a registered nurse at a hospital in Corinth, Texas, at the time of the event.
On the 2nd day of February year 2021, while working on her shift, the RN mistakenly administered an unknown dosage of a pain medication to a patient who was supposed to only receive 2 milligrams of the said medicine. Instead of the 2 milligrams instructed, the RN prepared twice the amount of the prescribed medicine. This led to the patient notifying the management of the sudden increase in the medicine’s dose. When asked about this, the RN confessed to having given more than the dosage allowed but clarified that it wasn’t 4 milligrams. Furthermore, the RN falsified the actual dosage of the pain medication he had given to the patient on the medical records.
On the chart provided, the RN inputs to have administered 2 milligrams only while the other 2 milligrams have been wasted. The following morning, the patient was reported to have gone hypotensive as a result of a rapid response to an overdose. What the nurse had done compromised the patient’s overall condition by administering a high dosage of painkillers without the attending physician’s knowledge.
In his defense, the RN noted that he did administer a 3-milligram dose of the pain medication contrary to what was prescribed which was 2 milligrams, he then justified that he overlooked what was written on the doctor’s note as it happened shortly after the patient walked out of the post-op unit and not long after shift change. He also explained that he didn’t have much time to go through the medical records, but in his recollection, the patient was prescribed lots of pain medications, and 4 milligrams was the total dosage of what the patient had to take. It also did not help that their unit had a computer network issue that evening, making their tasks extra difficult as he had to manually override the Pyxis to get the medications needed.
According to the registered nurse, the patient asked for painkillers, so he went to fetch some of the pain medication she had asked for. He also mentioned that he took 4 milligrams out of the Pyxis because that’s what he remembered.
The nurse further recalls getting a pop-up notification upon scanning the medication indicating that the order had been modified to two (2) milligrams. The registered nurse reports that the patient expressed her level of pain and that the lower dosage would not be adequate.
With the patient’s full knowledge and consent, the RN proceeded to take 3 milligrams of the medicine to be administered and threw the remaining one milligram of it. He then inputted 2 milligrams into the patient’s records. Although it was an act only with good intentions, he acknowledged whatever he did wrong and was remorseful. The RN claimed that he never should have strayed from the order, he also reiterated that he had never done it before and that he’ll be more cautious in the future.
Further to the incident, the Texas Board of Nursing(BON) conducted the investigation and was proven guilty of the misconduct. The RN could have easily gone through the proceedings with the help of a skilled Nurse Lawyer, however, he failed to do so, hence he had to carry on this legal battle on his own.
To avoid dealing with the complications, we must seek the help of a trusted legal counsel who would competently get us out of this dark situation. One of the Texas Nurse Attorney to call is Attorney Yong J. An. As someone who has assisted hundreds of medical practitioners, this legal expert can confidently represent your case. For further inquiries please call this hotline (832) 428-567.