Memphis VA hospital deaths

Associated Press

MEMPHIS — The Veterans Health Administration says inspectors have investigated the deaths of three patients who died in the emergency department at the Memphis VA Medical Center.

The administration said Wednesday that one patient was administered a medication, in spite of a documented drug allergy, and had a fatal reaction. Another patient was found unresponsive after receiving multiple sedating medications.

A third patient had critically high blood pressure that was not aggressively monitored and experienced bleeding in the brain.

The investigation showed that the facility had completed protected peer reviews of the care for all three patients. But the report also recommends that the hospital strengthen root cause action plans, improve monitoring of emergency department patients and complete competency assessments for emergency department nursing staff.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/oct/24/3-patient-deaths-probed-memphis-va-hospital/?latest

(Never been there; don’t know anything about the facility. Dallas VA closed its psychiatric department for a time. A regional VA examiner at Waco in 2002 or 2003 told me more complaints were lodged against Dallas psychiatric department than all other Texas regions combined. The Dallas shrinks were inattentive, had pre-determined conclusions and often did not follow protocol. Psychiatric nurses, however, followed guidelines and procedure. Here, I have not had problems with appointments or 25,000-mile checkups, but in some depatments, quality is not what it should be.)