Rest home blasted after failing to administer medication to resident who later died

A rest home has been found to have been in breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights after failing to provide appropriate care and services to one of its residents who later died.

It comes after an elderly woman began suffering from pain and symptoms of a urinary tract infection during her stay at Presbyterian Support Services (Central) rest home in 2016, the Health and Disability Commissioner said in a statement.

The rest home did not initiate a short-term care plan for the resident, and it failed to forward urine test results to the doctor. Soon after developing pain and symptoms of the infection, the woman’s condition began to deteriorate and she developed a cough and nausea. While doctors prescribed nebulisers to relieve her coughing, the nursing staff did not administer them as required.

The woman’s condition continued to worsen and she was prescribed palliative medication, including medication to ease anxiety and nausea. However, the rest home failed to prepare an end-of-life care plan, and the palliative medication was not administered until two hours after receiving the prescription.

The woman died a short time later.

In a report, released today, Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall concluded that the resident was "let down by various aspects of the care provided to her by numerous staff at the rest home during her stay".

Ms Wall found the rest home had breached the code by failing to prepare a short-term care plan in response to the woman’s change in condition, not treating or assessing her pain adequately, not informing the doctor of her urine test results and not administering a nebuliser as required after they were prescribed by a doctor. Ms Wall also felt there was a lack of planning and a delay in starting palliative medications. Ms Wall found the documentation by staff for this period to be poor.

Ms Wall recommended that the rest home apologise to the woman’s family, carry out an audit on a number of its policies and use the report as a basis for staff training.