Visiting nurse...rant

**mombottoo** · 09-17-2008, 10:54 AM

Some of you know that my dad has been having major health issues, so to take some of the stress out of my life we opted to have a visiting nurse come in to help out with med management and so on. Well yesterday morning I had to take dad to see the cardio doctor and ended up with another prescription.

Since his nurse was there on Monday, I decided to go in and put the new med in his weekly med boxes....I am so glad I did. She had only put in 1/2 of his blood pressure dose, she doubled his coumadin dose and had meds in his box that he is no longer taking argh!!! Plus, she didn't draw his blood for his PT/INR (coumadin check) like she was supposed to! I fixed his med boxes and I called VN office and spoke with her team leader. The team leader promised to have her call me within 45 minutes...well she didn't so finally at 4p.m. I called the team leader again and left a message that the VN hadn't called me and to please have her do so.

The VN called me within 10 minutes of me leaving the message and of course she apologized profusely for the med mix ups and for not drawing his blood even though both my dad and my niece told her it had to be drawn (he has a standing "as needed" order). Seems prior to calling me she called dad's PC doc and he told her to get out there and draw dad's blood. She asked me if I thought my dad would mind and I told her to go do what the doc told her to do. She made it out about 5p.m. and drew his blood, so sometime today we will find out the results.

I am so agitated over this, the main reason for having a nurse come in was to take the load off and to help dad with his meds since he was not complying with the medication therapies. I have no idea how many days he was taking his pills like she had them set up, but I do know that by Monday evening he was feeling like crap. I'm so glad that I decided to put his new med in his boxes, if I hadn't God only knows what could have happened to him.

**ktsmama** · 09-17-2008, 11:00 AM

I am so glad that you caught this. I hope things get better and stay that way.

**G'MaDebbie** · 09-17-2008, 11:27 AM

And you did this to take the stress out of your life! I would be raising all kinds of stink over this! There is no excuse for a nurse to screw up his meds like that. I would call VN back and tell them to assign a more competent nurse to look after your father, seeings how she isn't even capable of returning a phone call.
I am so sorry you have to go thru this. I really hope you can get it straightened out.

**MrsClaus** · 09-17-2008, 12:03 PM

Both dh and my dad are on coumadin. Taking double the dose can be very dangerous. I'd definately be calling and complaining and requesting another nurse. There's no excuse for her not doing her job and doing it right.

**Holly** · 09-17-2008, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by cokencaptgirl

And you did this to take the stress out of your life! I would be raising all kinds of stink over this! There is no excuse for a nurse to screw up his meds like that. I would call VN back and tell them to assign a more competent nurse to look after your father, seeings how she isn't even capable of returning a phone call.
I am so sorry you have to go thru this. I really hope you can get it straightened out.

She took the words right out of my mouth.
This is one reason I never allowed them in. I did my parents
meds or my EX SIL who is a LPN when I wasn't there.
It doesn't help if you have to go behind them and make sure their doing their job.
Hope you have better luck from now on

**Lindsey** · 09-17-2008, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by cokencaptgirl

And you did this to take the stress out of your life! I would be raising all kinds of stink over this! There is no excuse for a nurse to screw up his meds like that. I would call VN back and tell them to assign a more competent nurse to look after your father, seeings how she isn't even capable of returning a phone call.
I am so sorry you have to go thru this. I really hope you can get it straightened out.

Well said!

**fernykins** · 09-17-2008, 12:56 PM

I hope you got rid of the old meds and in large letters posted the right meds and doses to take. Thats just terrible.
Fern

**Greebo** · 09-17-2008, 01:42 PM

Hang in there - the team leader sounds like she's on the ball. I'm sure they'll send you a competent nurse soon!

**Gibs** · 09-17-2008, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by cokencaptgirl

And you did this to take the stress out of your life! I would be raising all kinds of stink over this! There is no excuse for a nurse to screw up his meds like that. I would call VN back and tell them to assign a more competent nurse to look after your father, seeings how she isn't even capable of returning a phone call.
I am so sorry you have to go thru this. I really hope you can get it straightened out.

i agree completely.

**Michelle68** · 09-17-2008, 05:07 PM

Wow! I'm so sorry you had so much trouble with this nurse. I'm a home health nurse myself and I can't imagine why this one would've messed up his meds so badly. Did the VN company have the correct orders sent by by the doc for your dad's meds and did the doctor send them the standing orders for the PT/INR ? When we admit a patient, we are supposed to have the med orders faxed to us by the doctor's office and go over it and all the meds in the home with the patient. We are supposed to double check with the doctor if meds in the home and meds on the list do not match. If the patient is on Coumadin and there are no orders for a PT/INR, we will call the doctor and check if they want us to check the PT/INR for them, since some patients go to the doctor's office and have it done.

I don't blame you for being royally p***** off about this. If you call the VN office and ask for another nurse, they should send you another. I'm sorry you have to deal with this. Good luck with finding your dad competent care.

--Michelle

**Goodwin17** · 09-17-2008, 11:33 PM

I agree with everyone above. There is simply no excuse for that kind of thing. I have worked as a home health nurse before, and I don't understand how someone could get things messed up so much like that. I hope everything turns out ok, and that you get someone else out there to help you!

**mombottoo** · 09-18-2008, 11:37 AM

The VN did finally call after I called in the late afternoon and left a voice mail for the team leader (within 10 minutes). She apologized all over herself and ended up out at dad's at 5p.m. to do the PT/INR. I talked to the doc yesterday and he is going to have to leave dad on his current dose through this evening and do another PT/INR tomorrow morning since he's not sure if the test is accurate due to the mix up with the dose of coumadin.

I called this morning & left a voice mail for the VN letting her know the PT/INR needs to be done tomorrow morning...miracles of miracles she called me right back and promised she would do it first thing. I know some of the errors were lack of communication on the part of the "med professionals", but when you are dealing with someone with dad's med issues you make sure you know what you are supposed to be doing. My gripe is that both my dad & my niece told her he needed his PT/INR done Monday morning and she didn't listen...if in doubt she could have called the doctor's office to verify what exactly she was supposed to be doing...seems simple enough to me. Problem was, she was way behind Monday and was at dad's for less than 20 minutes...and he was the one who got short changed because she was running behind.

Thanks everyone for listening...