[TexKan]

Hey Faith - we all make mistakes in postin sometimes - that don't mean we change our minds in our opinion.

I don't know what you do Zeb but I would like to add that in the world of QM and CPI there is a dept that is designed to handel bad outcomes and the possible liabilities. It's Risk Management. Perhaps you have a connection there? Actually a relative of mine I believe is the QM co ordinator for the hosp. QM looks for opportunities to improve service and care. RM deals with the really undesirable outcomes. Most of these altho are system related and not always personell related. I think the issue that is being overlooked is that physicians use the system (called the hospital) and the outcomes are based on how that physician utilizes the system. The hospital system is probably state of the art for a rural area, unfortunately often times it's the choices the MD made that created the adverse outcome.

I only post this cause I did QM/CPI for our local teaching university in Galveston for 8 years. Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance companies look very closely at the stats the QM dept collects as well as lookin at the peer review system. None of us like to be the case with an adverse outcome or the case where substandard care was given - but it does happen. No MD, nurse or institution is perfect. There is an allowable percentage. That's why medicine is an art and not a science.

All the above is also why I chose not to work there. I am glad tho that they have streamlined thier pharmacy - perhaps my incident report helped. Scary when ya work with BSN's that don't know that maxide is not diazide (htn drug) worse yet any nurse worth the paper they work off of would know what the 2 look like -unfortunatley the pharmacy didn't know either if I hadn't known what they look like (thank you Ethel Franklin) that patient that day would have gotten the wrong drug cause the nurses trusted the pharmacy and because they couldn't find it in the PDR picture section they were willing to just give the drug - the drugs themselves are as old as the salt any nurse should be worth! I personally knew then and still know I'm a far better, experienced, seasoned nurse than to risk my liscense and reputation working around a bunch of wet behind the ears, I don't care attitude nurses. I know they are not all like that but when I work agency, I am very careful. That whole shift was agency - the charge was out of Florida - he wasn't interested in too much but the $$. It's not the money that keeps me in nursing! So I'm also glad to hear that they have gotten a grip on the nursing dept as well - it needed a shake up.