DNR Status: How Do Staff Know
Posted by Patti on March 23rd, 2007 / Print This Post
The other day I posted about a nursing home that got sued for DOING TOO much to save a life…for not following the DNR of a resident; who ended up going to a local ER and was subjected to the usual array of life saving tools…Today we see just the opposite in this article:
Albany County has paid a $75,050 fine, levied by the federal government, after its nursing home was cited for jeopardizing the health and safety of residents last year, officials said.The state Health Department, after an inspection late last year, notified the federal government that the Albany County Nursing Home was not in compliance with requirements for nursing homes participating in the Medicare/Medicaid programs.
Around the same time, the state placed the facility in “immediate jeopardy” status after two people died when the staff failed to resuscitate them.
Question:
What does your facility do to ensure ALL staff KNOW the DNR status of residents? Even non staff, such as agency, must know these things- what exact orders are in place, where these documents are located and facility policy and protocol for such events.
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I just asked this question last week at my facility. Our DNRs are listed IN THE CHART somewhere. No specific place. So if we find someone unresponsive, we have to send someone to the nurses station to search the chart BEFORE we start CPR. Seems like a huge waste of much-needed minutes if they are NOT a DNR.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Same where I work. There has to be a better way. You know, they have neat little ways to tell us who is a fall risk. Why not adapt some of those ideas for DNR status?
March 24th, 2007 at 7:46 am
we use blue armbands to id the people who have dnr orders.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
They place orange dots on the binders of the medicare pts., why not a blue dot for DNR ? But I was told that it would “violate privacy”.
Well, why dont the orange dots violate it also??
March 25th, 2007 at 11:55 am
at the facility where I work we list it in the chart also unless you know where to look you can’t find it. The state I live in started an out of hospital DNR program where you would wear a bracelet like the medic alert bracelet. Our big problem is knowing when we can treat a person or not
March 25th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Often the need for DNR occurs in the resident’s room. Having the info in a chart far away isn’t helpful…maybe, if a home uses preprinted assignments they could list DNR status there.
One place I know of uses simple stickers. Dots. Colored.
Red=No DNR
Green=Full Code
Not sure what Yellow means.
March 25th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
The dots are located on a wall above the residents’ beds; on their wheelchairs if they have one, and on their charts too.
The dots don’t say anything. So there is not privacy violation.
March 25th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
…and…having this info located in a chart is necessary for sure, but many charts are poorly organized and people CANNOT find the actual documents. They should keep them all in the same place in every chart!
March 29th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I like th dot idea. It’s simple and colors like red and green have a universal meaning (I think).