Nursing Documentation: Court Faults Nurse For Failing To Note Time Of Catheter Removal
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
The nurse noted in the patient's chart that she had removed the catheter, but did not record the time of day. Later that day, the patient was unable to void her urine. According to the court record, because the nurse who removed the catheter did not record the time of day, there was a delay in reinserting another catheter to enable the patient to void.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia faulted the nurse who removed the catheter. The court ruled it was negligent nursing practice for the nurse not to have made note of the time of day when the catheter was removed.
Immediately prior to her hysterectomy, the patient was given an indwelling urinary catheter to facilitate post-operative drainage. On the morning after surgery, the catheter was removed by one of the hospital's nurses.
The case also involved complex allegations of medical malpractice over the manner in which the surgeon had done the hysterectomy. These allegations included a claim that the patient developed urinary stress incontinence because of how the surgeon had placed sutures through the walls of the bladder and vagina. For technical legal reasons, the Court of Appeals was not satisfied the trial judge had given proper instructions to guide the jury's deliberations on the medical malpractice issues, so the jury's verdict exonerating the surgeon and the hospital was thrown out in favor of a new trial.
The Court of Appeals was convinced the patient's stress incontinence was caused by the surgeon's negligence, and was not due to an error or omission in the post-op nurse's charting. However, blame could be laid upon the nurse for the distress the patient experienced due to the delay in reinserting her catheter so she could void.
Hartman vs. Hospital, 466 S.E. 2d 33 (Ga. App., 1995).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/urinary-catheter-sepsis.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/catheter.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/catheter2.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/forced-catheterization.htm