Would you believe that if you have a license, which is expired, the Board can still take action on that license? Unfortunately, many nurses find out the hard way that this is the case. The idea is that, like a driver’s license, if your license gets suspended in one state, they don’t want you driving in another state. Here, they don’t want you to reapply to get your license back. In addition, the Board feels that the public has a right to know if there is a problem. If you have an … [Read more...]
Charting by Exception
I often tell people that I was practicing nursing back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth! We didn’t have computers then and we didn’t have charting by exception. We only had what we would write down in the paper chart medical record. While progress in technology has since made documentation so much easier, these advances may not always be in the nurse’s best interest. When all you need to do is check the boxes to record how the patient is doing, it’s hard to make sure that A + B … [Read more...]
Documentation Will Save You Every Time
I recently was involved in a medical malpractice trial in which the nurses’ documentation was at issue. Or perhaps more appropriately would be to say it was the nurses’ lack of documentation. Sometimes we get so busy with our work, but documentation is the only thing that may save you if there is a medical malpractice action. Many States have a statute of limitations which is a timeframe setting up a deadline for when a lawsuit can be filed. Here, in Indiana, that statute limitation is 2 … [Read more...]
Two Sides To Every Coin
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a nonprofit home health care agency, has recently been named in a lawsuit under the Federal and State False Claims Act alleging that the agency improperly and falsely billed Medicare and Medicaid. It is hard to believe that such a long standing agency that has served its state resident since 1893 has had this claim filed against them. Visiting Nurse Service of New York denies the allegations. Remember that there are 2 sides of every lawsuit and, in … [Read more...]
Technology Can Put Us At Odds With Patient Care
Did you know that most automatic medication dispensing systems track discrepancies? All discrepancies should be resolved by the end of the shift. They also report when controlled substances are taken and can compare the medications vended versus the medications charted. Then, someone needs to check whether the waste was properly documented. Was there an order for the medication? How often did the nurse remove the medication for a particular patient? Is the effectiveness of the medication … [Read more...]
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