Low staff levels may be to blame for a patient's fall from an 11th-floor window at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The patient, Gloria Shavers, fell to her death last month when the window was left unlocked, according to WABE News.
She had been admitted to the ICU after experiencing a seizure and was later transferred to the neurological unit on the 11th floor. Noting that the patient showed "signs of confusion," her physician ordered one-on-one monitoring for Shavers. However, according to the federal investigative report, Shavers had no sitter from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. that night.
Since the event, the hospital took corrective actions. Grady's chief nursing officer called an emergency meeting to review the sitter policy and authorized overtime to unlicensed staff to work as sitters while increasing the number of nursing assistants, according to the article. In addition, Grady inspected each window lock and added tamper-proof screws. Out of 566 windows checked, 21 were found to be unlocked.
Although the hospital's accreditation and Medicare payment status currently are not affected, according to the Journal-Constitution, the incident could cost the hospital Medicare dollars if problems persist.
"The facility agrees to provide quality care in a safe environment and we agree to pay for that care. ... If it was not corrected and it was severe enough then we could terminate the funding," said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spokesperson Lee Millman, reports WABE News.
For more information:
- read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article
- read WABE News article
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