to Kara and Patty - JCAHO

[Guest guest]

Kara,

If I had been kept waiting in the ER in pain while it was vacant of patients for

4

hours, I would immediately sit down and write a letter of complaint to the

hospital administrator, and also make a formal complaint to JCAHO. I'm

providing the link for their website, all you need to do is click on it and go

to

the section where you can file an online complaint.

Patty,

If I had been lying in a hospital bed in pain for that duration and then had a

nurse come in with my doctor's prescribed medicine that had been diluted,

(without the doctor's permission), and then not fully injected, this is what I

would do:

First, I would WRITE a letter of formal complaint to the Head of Nurses, listing

the time, date, name of the offending nurse, and a precise explanation of the

facts of the incident, to include what the nurse said to you about how she

diluted the morphine, etc.

Secondly, I would also write a letter of complaint to JCAHO.

So my reaction to both of these problems is essentially the same. Make a

formal complaint IN WRITING, both to responsible parties in the hospital and

to JCAHO. I've learned by experience that a verbal complaint isn't enough!

Although a verbal complaint may be acted on at the time the incident

occurred, I've found that it never goes any further than that. Without written

record of the transgression, it can happen time and time again, without

anyone being the wiser or any corrections being made. Come back to that

hospital in a week, a month or a year later, and the same problems can and

do exist, because no one formally complained and nothing was done to

correct them!

JCAHO is the governing body that oversees hospitals and annually grants

them accredidation to keep their doors open for business. They want to know

about any problems with staffing, medical care, upkeep of facilities, food,

medical supplies, etc., etc., and if we, the patient's, don't formally express

our

concerns about obvious problems that need correcting, those problems will

be pushed under the rug for the next unsuspecting patient to stumble and fall

over! And that patient may be you, or your father, mother, friend, etc. You

get the picture. It's very easy to make a complaint with them, they even have

a form you can fill out online at their website.

Here's the link:

http://www.jcaho.com/

If we don't do everything we can to bring problems like this to the forefront,

we are, in a way, as guilty as the offending medical professional or facility.

I

am not, by nature, a whiner, complainer or whistle blower.......... but I am

very

concerned about responsible health care! My life may depend on it...your life

may depend upon it! When we have a vehicle right online that can be utilized

when we have a legitimate complaint, why not take advantage of it? Both of

these situations, in my opinion, are situations that COULD have resulted in

serious consequences, and both have apparently simple remedies.....but not

if the right people don't know about them.