Indiana Regional Cited in Patient IV

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A staffer at the Indiana Regional Medical Center placed an intravenous needle in a patient's extremity ignoring a bracelet warning against using that site for an IV. Then the unnamed staffer apparently removed the warning bracelet.
That was the conclusion of a state Health Department inspection report on the 164-bed health facility just made public.
The Sept. 7 visit to the hospital was labeled an "unannounced on-site complaint investigation."
The hospital, which did not respond to a request for comment, was also cited for failing to properly report the event which ocurred in June. The hospital is part of the 18 member Pennsylvania Mountains Healthcare Alliance.
According to the report, other employees reported seeing a staffer attempting unsuccessfully to insert the IV in the correct extremity on the evening of June 20. The next morning, June 21, an employee noticed that the IV was in the wrong extremity and the warning bracelet had been removed.
The facility "failed to ensure that an intravenous device was not inserted into an extremity which was restricted from use," the report states, adding that the hospital also "failed to ensure that the warning bracelet was maintained."
The inspection report notes that such restrictions are required when a patient has undergone a mastectomy or suffered paralysis in the extremity.
The staffer who noticed the wrongly placed IV immediately removed it, the report states.
In a plan of correction filed with the state, Indiana Regional promised to implement a retraining program and audit cases in which an extremity restriction was in place.
The plan does not indicate what if any action was taken against the employee who placed the IV in a restricted extremity or whether the patient suffered any adverse effects.
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