At this point, Americans are well aware of the shocking story of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who entered America infected with the Ebola virus, and tragically later died while in care of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
While the Ebola outbreak in America was fortunately very limited, Duncan’s treatment and overall experience in American medical care has raised some important questions and criticisms of healthcare protocols in general, and Texas Health Presbyterian’s standards specifically.
When Duncan first presented at the hospital, he was seen by a doctor and eventually diagnosed with sinusitis, prescribed antibiotics, and sent home. This was obviously a major error, and could have placed many other people at risk for infection. Although the hospital staff did know that Duncan had travelled to Africa, this information was not known by the doctor who first treated Duncan, and was not taken into account as part of his diagnosis.
Texas Health Presbyterian issued a variety of statements about Duncan’s treatment, which seem to be contradictory and overall poorly managed. In a recent report by the Dallas Observer, it is noted that, “The hospital had at first made a subtle suggestion that the misdiagnosis was a nurse’s fault. Though a nurse who saw Duncan in his first visit to Presby was aware that he had traveled to Africa, “regretfully that information was not fully communicated” to the rest of the medical team, Presby said at the time.”
However, later the hospital seems to have changed the story, “As a standard part of the nursing process, the patient’s travel history was documented and available to the full care team in the electronic health record (EHR), including within the physician’s workflow…there was no flaw in the EHR in the way the physician and nursing portions interacted related to this event.”
Although the hospital seems to have later retracted this commentary as well, it does appear a major cause of Duncan’s misdiagnosis was poor communication between hospital staff and poor management of medical records, both issues that hospital technology is designed to solve.
In the increasingly complex world of healthcare, technology is playing a growing and critical role in delivering healthcare. And although technical advances have great potential to improve quality and efficiency in care, the example of Thomas Duncan shows that a reliance on technology can carry risks as well.
Could something as small as a software bug lead to a patient’s serious injury or death? While Duncan’s case fortunately did not lead to a major Ebola outbreak, it’s easy to imagine how a similar case could have lead to dire consequences and potentially cost dozens of lives. To leave this level of risk at the hands of medical software alone is something that may make many Americans very uncomfortable.
At Wormington & Bolliger, we take cases of medical malpractice and negligence from clients all across Texas. In our experience, we know that medical technology and records management are often an important element of medical malpractice cases. If you or a loved one has suffered from medical malpractice, it’s important to understand both the human and technical factors that may influence your case. To learn more and get a free case evaluation, please contact Wormington & Bollinger today.