Unqualified Staff Administered Anesthesia

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

After the credentialed staff literally walked away, unqualified staff at an East Stroudsburg Hospital were left to administer anesthesia to an unidentified patient suffering a severe asthma attack.
That was the conclusion of officials from the Pennsylvania Health Department after conducting interviews and reviewing rcords at the 237-bed Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono.
According to a report recently made public the incident occurred on Oct. 14 when the patient had difficulty breathing and nursing staff sought assistance from the anesthesia department.
Though two qualified anesthesia staffers came to the Intensive Care Unit and brought a anesthesia machine with them, they then left.
"CF5 and CF6 refused to stay with MR1 (the patient), the report states. "They left the ICU."
The state surveyors found that the treatment of the patient resulted in multiple violations of hosital policy and accepted treatment standards. Those included failure to have a written physician's order for anesthesia and failure to perform a pre-anesthesia evaluation of the patient.
The hospital "failed to ensure a qualified practitioner monitored a patient receiving a general anesthetic," the report states.
The hospital did file a plan of correction in which they promised to re-educate staff on the required standards for anesthesia administration, including the requirement for a written order from a qualified physician.
Hospital officials did not respond to a request for comment.
After CF5 and CF6 walked away, the patient's primary nurse refused to administer the anesthesia leaving CF2 and CF3 to oversee the anesthesia administration which extended from 6:57 p.m. to 1:32 a.m.
"CF2 and CF3 did not have privileges to administer general anesthesia," the report states.
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