"Care following an accident"

I was very appreciative of the overall care and support given by Royal Perth Hospital staff and was reluctant to leave their care.

However there were a couple of incidents that I believe require improvement and further safety & quality measures put in place:

After around 24hours of staying at RPH I made a comment to my nurse that the pillow underneath in left arm where my IV was, was wet and mentioned my pain had increased after recent bathroom visit. The nurse didn’t investigate further/look at my arm and we noted that I might have spilled something. The following morning my pillow was now saturated and after mentioning again to the nurse, she looked at the arm and noticed the IV was no longer properly inserted and I hadn’t been receiving appropriate pain medication for at least 12-15 hours or longer. I believe this should have been discovered earlier if the proper wound/IV site was checked over several shifts, which I do not recall being completed.

There were two incidents were PCAs/kitchen staff placed food on my bedside table out of reach (due to my broken ribs, sternum and wrist). When I asked if they could move the trays closer, both times I was told I needed to call my nurse to assist. I am aware of restrictions on what a PCAs vs Nurses can assist with, however moving a bedside tray closer I feel is basic patient care and support.

On discharge from RPH, I received a script for my own current medications (that I had left in another hospital) and additional pain medications. I noticed the following day that the script for my current medications was incorrect and outdated (months prior my medications around diuretics and blood pressure had been changed by my Cardiologist), when I called to mention this to the discharging Doctor and commented that I had provided the hospital with my current medications, they said they provided a script for what was recorded my MyHealth Record and I would need to see a GP in Perth to get this amended. I believe this is not safe Medication Safety Management as although MyHealth Record is a useful patient information tool, discharging scripts should be confirmed with the patient in regards to current medications. Also the discharging pain medications were confusing as the pills look very similar (the Endone and Panamx tablets) once removed from packaging. Perhaps a webster pack like packaging for pain medication would have been better to assist with self administering.

When I finally got an emergency appt with my local GP clinic as I had run out of pain meds by the Sunday, the discharge summary had not been completed/sent through and they were not aware of what had occurred.

I do work in healthcare and are aware of the current challenges all clinicians face. You all do an amazing job and I appreciate all the hard work and dedication you all made to get me back on my feet and back with my family. That being said there are some things that I feel could be reviewed to prevent potential clinical incidents and improve patient care.