A "Living Will" Or "Advanced Directive" Is Not Always Enough.
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I have previously written about "getting your affairs in order" in the form of a living will. A story by Jane Friedmann in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune brought to mind an important topic concerning living wills or, as they are sometimes known, "advanced directives for health care." These are formal documents which tell your healthcare providers whether, or to what extent, you would like "heroic measures" such as CPR should your heart stop beating. Idaho Code §§ 39-4501 through -4515 govern these documents in Idaho and, in fact, the law sets forth the specific requirements of such a document.
Instead of boring you with a lot of "law," however, the story brought to light an issue of training and procedures for the Pine Medical Health Care Center. You see, a resident there did, in fact, have a valid living will. The problem was the staff could not locate the document when the resident's heart stopped beating. The nurse, instead of immediately starting CPR, "called her manager who told her where to find the documents and to start CPR." When the nurse who should have performed CPR on the resident was interviewed by the appropriate authorities, she apparently told them she "froze and was unable" to perform CPR even though that was the resident's wishes. Although the article does not state what happened to the resident; it can be safely presumed, however, a needless death occurred. The nurse faces "disqualification by the state and inclusion on an abuse registry."
It goes without saying, if a resident's living will is not placed in an obvious place, the delay in the staff locating it can lead to truly deadly consequences. Additionally, it would seem to me Pine Medical Health Care Center could have, and should have, developed a system to help staff readily identify whether its residents wish to have CPR performed or not. Finally, adequate training of facility staff would have resulted in an ability to properly perform CPR on the resident. Such a system and training could have prevented this needless catastrophe.
Does your facility have such procedures and training in place? You should check! If it does not, it could be your life that is needlessly lost.
Although the owners of the assisted living facility say this was a tragic "accident that could have been prevented," because of the facility's policies, what is more telling is the fact that the aide had worked for the facility "on and off for nine years." This fact leads me to believe the aide was simply not properly trained to perform her job. If the facility had properly trained her, there would have been no doubt in the aide's mind about what needed to be done when she found Mr. Foster. I am sure the assisted living facility, no doubt, conducted a training session immediately after this tragedy. Unfortunately, for Mr. Foster and his family, that training came too late.