In both of our local papers yesterday was reports of 15 JVS nursing students that were supposed to be given Mantaux tests for tuberculosis and instead were given injections of polio vaccine. The Mantaux test is mandatory before the students can go out to hospitals, nursing homes, etc. for the clinical part of their training. The amount of polio vaccine was an extremely low dosage. The test is to determine if any of the students have been exposed to or have any trace of tuberculosis.
The test were administered by a nurse from the Lisbon Community Health Center a week ago. The nurse did not notice the error until after all the tests were completed. When told of the mix up the officials at JVS immediately reviewed the students health records and notified the parents on what occurred. They also checked with health experts for any ill effects to look for. Fortunately none of the students reported any adverse reactions.
Even though this turned out to be no problem I have to ask where is the accountability and what is being done to insure this carelessness will not happen again. That polio vaccine did not come in an unmarked container. The whole incident could have been avoided if someone took a brief moment to read the label. Like I said it didn't turn out to be a problem but the fact that it did happen is scary enough. Was that nurse having a bad day that she neglected to perform a very basic inspection of the labels? Where is the assurance that this should not be tolerated and won't happen again?
The only hint of accountability in both reports was some back pedaling by CC Health Commissioner Bob Morehead stating that the county health department had nothing to do with the incident. The Lisbon Community Health Center is part of the Community Action Agency. That's a different department altogether.
An incident like this should not be sluffed off.
ole nib
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4 comments:
It's unfair of you to characterize Bob Morehead's comments as "back-pedaling."
Just because he wanted the public to know this had nothing to do with the county health department, he can't be accused of back-pedaling.
That means when someone does or says something, gets caught and then tries to explain it away.
You there in Wellsville should certainly understand THAT term.
In spite of your snide remarks about Wellsville I'll admit that maybe "back pedaling" was not the best way to describe Mr. Morehead's comments. Maybe deniability would have been better. What ever the case I mentioned his remarks to emphasize that in both articles that was the only thing mentioned that had anything to do with any kind of accountability. His remarks were in a negative accountability vein but my comment really had nothing to do with Mr. Morehead. This screw up could have been potentially disastrous. Thank the Good Lord it wasn't. It was very preventable and it never should have happened. Someone should be held accountable. This is another instance where we were only given part of the story.
ole nib
I don't understand what you mean by "part of the story." What more do you want to know? That someone got fired? I assume if that happens, it will eventually be written about in the papers, too.
Mistakes happen. Thank God it wasn't detrimental to anyone's health but what else is there to say?
Was this just an isolated incidence? Is there safe guards in place to prevent this from reoccurring? If not is there steps being put in place to prevent this from reoccurring?
That's the part of the story that was not mentioned. I don't want anyone fired but if that was one of my kids I would be extremely upset. It would be nice if we could be assured this won't happen again. Yes, mistakes do happen every day but when it comes to some one's health it is not time to be nonchalant. A lot of people depend on these agencies for their health care. Can they be assured they are in good hands? I think the JVS folks did an excellent job responding to this snafu. What about the CAA?
ole nib
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