You can't stay ahead of these errors.

Remember the story about my MD friend's elderly mother, the one who was suffering from falls because she was over-medicated for blood pressure issues? Once the doses were reduced, she did fine: "She has more stamina than ever before. She is happy."

Well, here's the next chapter:

So Mom is back in her original assisted living place, walking with a walker, to everyone's surprise. However, the medical errors are following her.

When she was being discharged, the rehab center sat me down and gave me a discharge summary and medication list, saying they had been faxed to the original nursing home. We went over and discussed every medication.

9 pm the night she went back, my phone rings; it's the nursing office of the original place saying they have her on Tramadol but the pharmacy says there is an allergy. I said, "What?" You see, Tramadol was not on her medication list. They said, "It wasn't on the list YOU gave us but it IS on the list that was faxed to us." So, I said, "There are 2 lists out there!" I said, "Take her off it," and hung up.

Today, two WEEKS later, the nurse practitioner calls and starts discussing clonidine, a BP medicine she was on. I said, "What?" You see, again, that wasn't on her medication list.  She said, "Oh, but the rehab center started her on that and I want to discontinue it." I told her there were at least 2 medication lists out there but she wasn't interested. So I said, "Fine, d/c the clonidine."

So . . . she's been on 2 BP drugs instead of 1 for two weeks, which was the original reason she was falling so much!

 

I'm ready to give up. You can't stay ahead of these errors.