I was searching through the Idaho Board of Health records for the hospital that *I* had my experience in, just to see if they were doing any better. They are WORSE than ever. However in perusing the many complaints I found one that is germane to the problem of being injected with Versed against our will. Remember how those nurses simultaneously tell us to list Versed/Midazolam as an "allergy" while at the same time maintaining their right to decide for themselves whether it's REALLY an allergy and giving it to you anyway? Here's the ABSOLUTE PROOF that even if you tell these medical workers that you don't want or need Versed, (or any other drug) that you deny them their favorite drug and tell them that you have an allergy, they will simply decide otherwise and IT'S ALL OK! Unbelievable! Here's the link;
http://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/Portals/0/Medical/LicensingCertification3/120412KootenaiMedCtrCX6.pdf
Here's the excerpt which is so shocking to me! What happened to informed CONSENT? The patient involved CLEARLY stated that they didn't want and didn't consent to Morphine...and yet...
"The Pharmacist stated that nausea and "flu-like" symptoms from Morphine was a side effect, rather than an allergy, and would be approved for patient administration. The Director of Pharmacy provided multiple documents which demonstrated the review of medications and over-ride process before allowing those medications to be administered.
While the patient claimed to be allergic to Morphine, the Pharmacist had determined the drug was safe for administration to the patient."
So the patient goes into the hospital and states that she doesn't want Morphine, has an allergy to it, don't give it. The personnel flags the hospital records so that the Pharmacy knows to choose another pain killer and guess what? IT DOESN'T MATTER! The patient has every RIGHT, BY LAW, TO REFUSE TO ALLOW ANYTHING THEY DON'T WANT! So why is it just fine to deliberately and maliciously decide, unilaterally and arbitrarily, that the patient will get whatever it is that they DON'T WANT OR ALLOW? What's the point of consent if this type of behavior is acceptable? The Pharmacy OVER-RODE the patients wishes, and-they-never-got-in-trouble-for-it! Clearly this patient did NOT give consent for the drug because she didn't LIKE it, whether or not it was a true allergy. She declined its administration. Why did she get it anyway? Wow! Can you see why I had so much trouble at Kootenai myself? (shaking head in disbelief)
I specifically mentioned Morphine as a drug that was acceptable to me, along with nausea medication. I'm fine with Morphine. Guess which drug I DIDN'T GET? That's right, they wouldn't give me Morphine, oh hell no, patients can't dictate any preferences to THEM! I guess I should feel lucky I didn't get Demerol, another drug *I* had refused. I had no idea that this kind of forced medication, violating the autonomy of patients was actually just fine. So where do we go from here? How do we get COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW?
FYI here are the patient rights laws that were broken in the above example;
42 CFR 482.13 (a)(2)(b) "The patient has the right to participate in the development and implementation of his or her plan of care."
42 CFR 482.13 (a)(2)(b)(2) "The patient or his or her representative has the right to make informed decisions regarding his or her care. The patients rights include being informed of his or her health status, being involved in care planning and treatment, and being able to request or refuse treatment.
These violations of patient rights laws were substantiated by the investigation by the Idaho Board of Health, so why did they dismiss the charges as 'unsubstantiated'? It's because there are no real patient rights. There is no other explanation why Kootenai wasn't cited for a clear and egregious violation of several of this patient's rights. It doesn't matter what some Pharmacist wants, decides, or proclaims is "safe for administration" the patient has every RIGHT to refuse!!!!
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