Becker's ASC Review

36 QUALITY & ACCREDITATION Patient Body Left in Shower for 9+ Hours at Florida VA Hospital, Report Finds By Emily Rappleye A body was le in a shower for more than nine hours at the Bay Pines (Fla.) VA Healthcare System aer the vet- eran died in February in the Bay Pines hospice unit, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Staff also falsely documented the incident and misrepresented why it happened, according to the report. e health system has taken steps to update procedures and retrain staff in light of the incident, according to the report. e findings reported by the Tampa Bay Times are based on a 24-page investigative report produced by the hospital in April. e newspaper obtained a heavily redacted copy under the federal Freedom of Information Act. e investigation, based on interviews with 30 witnesses, said the veteran died and hospice staff asked the transporter to move the patient's body to the morgue. e trans- porter asked hospice staff to follow protocol and contact dispatchers, which never hap- pened, according to the report. is meant no one came for the patient's body and it was instead moved to a hallway and later a shower room, where it was le unattended. e investigation also showed hospice staff did not follow protocol, failed to update charts and blamed staff shortages for the mis- take, according to the report. Hospital spokesman Jason Dangel told the Tampa Bay Times "strong, appropriate and expeditious" changes have been made to address the issue. "It is our expectation that each veteran is transported to their final rest- ing place in the timely, respectful and honor- able manner. America's heroes deserve noth- ing less," he said, according to the report. n 4.6% of Patients Under General Anesthesia May Remain Conscious: 3 Study Insights By Jessica Kim Cohen A study in Anesthesiology investigated the incidence of patient consciousness after undergoing general anesthesia. The researchers recruited 260 adult patients to receive in- travenous anesthesia; the researchers then used the "iso- lated forearm technique" to determine consciousness. In this technique, participants under anesthesia are asked to move the hand of a tourniquet-isolated arm, in an effort to gauge their responsiveness. Previous data suggest that 37 percent of patients may experience consciousness during general anesthesia, according to the study. Here's what you need to know: 1. A total of 4.6 percent of the respondents demonstrated signs of consciousness; of those who responded, almost half reported they felt pain. 2. The respondents who demonstrated signs of conscious- ness were younger than those who did not demonstrate signs of consciousness. 3. None of the participants had a recollection of intraop- erative events during follow-up questioning. The researchers concluded, "intraoperative connected consciousness occurred frequently, although the rate is up to 10-times lower than anticipated. This should be consid- ered a conservative estimate of intraoperative connected consciousness." n 5 Strategies for RNs to Reduce Medication Errors By Mary Rechtoris R esearchers identified the most common drugs as- sociated with medication errors among registered nurses and defined key strategies to reduce ME in- cidents, according to Medscape. Cardiovascular drugs comprised the most ME cases (24.7 percent), followed by antimicrobial (19.1 percent), elec- trolytes (11.3 percent), endocrine drugs (8.8 percent) and analgesics (8.8 percent). Across practices, ME cases among RNs occurred most often in medical-surgical units (35 percent), followed by intensive care units (14.7 percent) and intermediate care (13.3 percent). Based on these findings, researchers noted the following five strategies to limit ME cases for RNs: 1. Pursue continuing education courses and training 2. Have required courses in pharmacology during licen- sure, with an emphasis on high-risk drugs 3. Obtain sufficient training and retraining in administer- ing anticoagulation drugs 4. Utilize computerized provider order entry 5. Have nurse champions oversee computerized pro- vider order entry Applied Nursing Research published the study online in December 2016 and will publish the study its February 2017 print issue. n

• Cover