Reference no: EM133917662

Case study

A home health client sued her home health agency because a hip decubitus wound site she sustained in the hospital took a year longer to heal than it should have. Healing apparently was delayed by old gauze embedded in the wound, found there by a surgeon who operated on the wound when it failed to heal and instead worsened. The judge believed that the home health aides had been changing the outer dressing, but they did not understand the rationale for sterile packing and re-packing of a deep wound and had left the original gauze in the wound the entire time.

The nursing agency claimed its nurses had shown the aides how to re-pack the wound with sterile gauze and replace the outer bandages and had taught the patient how to do it herself.

Questions

1. Should this case have reached the courts? Why or why not?

2. Was there an error in judgment on the part of the nurse? If so, what should have been

3. Considered or done differently? If not, why not?

4. Who, ultimately, is responsible for what happened?

5. Justify your answers using legal guidelines that you have learned in school.