My father called me after visiting with my uncle and told me my uncles hand was bandaged. From what my uncle said, the patient was rolling by in her wheelchair and grabbed his hand. Before he could pull it away she had bit and clenched her teeth so hard the aides needed to pry her jaw open. The bite broke skin and majorily bruised his hand.
He is on a daily antibiotic and to my knowledge up to date on tetnus.
I am awaiting the facility to brief me on the situation. It has been over 24 hours and happended on Sunday so I am showing grace on the amount of time it will take for them to contact me (I am POA and HCP). I will give them until tomorrow (Tues) morning before I initiate contact.
Any thoughts of my timeframe? If I need to initiate contact, should I contact the Obusdsman as well? Not sure of the policy for this. I definately feel the social worker or charge nurse should contact me immediately but can understand a 24 hours delay since it happened on the weekend.
The DON is over all the Medical staff. Your aides report to an LPN, tge LPN reports to an RN and RN reports to the DON. You want something done, you go to the DON.
DON was unavailable due to meetings. I wanted to talk with the nurse because I need to establish a relationship with her because she is new and I have never talked with her.
Yes, my uncle was bitten but in the write up it was not stated it broke skin. But it is confirmed a bandage an antibiotic were used. I wasn't notified because in his records it is written that he has enough cognitive ability to make his own decisions. This makes absolutely no sense because he has moderate dementia and during out meeting with PT, SW and medical staff it has been stated he has had steep cognitive decline in the last six months. And, I have been notified immediately for illness and falls in the past.
While I feel that speaking with the nurse that it is an isolated occurrence I don't feel it was handled appropriately. I will contact the social worker to ask how to be notified every time from now on.
I would think your Dad got all the facts. Really, it was serious enough to give Uncle antibiotics. IMO, you should have been called especially if they know you only visit weekends. I would talk to the DON and ask is it not protocol to call the POA when something like this happens? If no, ask if you could please be notified when something like this happens. I don't think its anything to get the Ombudsman involved in.
I say ask because you want the staff as friends, not enemies. Never demand or show anger. "I was wondering why I did not get a call when Dad got bit bad enough to draw blood" May it was the end of a shift and staff was trying to get home. IMO, you should have been call by first shift Monday.
You say you're not sure what the policy is for this. You are already aware of the incident. If you want to talk to someone, go ahead and call the nurse in charge or social worker today. I don't know that testing them on their responsiveness is the best use of your time at this point. Let the nurse in charge know that you are aware of it, and ask what follow up is being done, and ask that they inform you of any changes in his condition. To be fair, they have a lot of patients with a lot going on every day. For them, it's just another Monday. You may have to be the one to initiate contact, and that's not necessarily an indication of the facility's poor response to incidents. Having a family advocate calling them on this might just get your uncle more attention and treatment that he needs.
Sad, but true, so many of our care homes are understaffed and the staff is overworked and the patients who have family members regularly involved in their care are going to get more attention and better care.
I am giving time for the social workers to be briefed. I am giving them time because they are busy and overworked. I am involved and have a good relationship with the social worker. I am seeking advice on how much time I should give them before approaching them as it has been 24 hours and this situation isn't a normal thing. It was an injury incident.