One of New Zealand’s largest owners and operators of retirement villages has been found in breach of the health code after substandard care in 2017 for a man in his 90s who died of suspected blood poisoning.
Oceania Healthcare, which owned the rest home at the time, was found to have breached the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (the Code), Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall said today.
The man had multiple medical conditions including dementia, heart failure, diabetes, and ischaemia, and had undergone an amputation when he was admitted to the rest home.
While a resident there, the man’s condition deteriorated and he began to show signs of pain, infection and delirium.
There was a delay in administering antibiotics, minimal opiate pain relief and a failure to test for a urinary tract infection (UTI).
He was transferred to hospital where he was diagnosed with suspected blood poisoning and died.
Ms Wall said the man was let down by various aspects of the care provided to him by numerous staff at the rest home.
Nurse practitioners who oversaw the rest home and no means for enabling direct, urgent access to a GP while the prescription system did not allow for urgent medications to be fast-tracked.
There was inadequate monitoring and documentation of the man’s condition and the rest home’s poor communication with the man’s family.
"[The man’s] deteriorating health should have been closely monitored at the time, with a clear plan of care established to ensure that the support provided and the actions of nursing and support staff were well co-ordinated and responsive to his rapid decline," Ms Wall said.
Ms Wall was also concerned that the man was transferred to hospital despite the man’s power of attorney having requested "comfort cares" if the man’s health had declined.
It was recommended by Ms Wall that the former owner of the rest home apologise to the man’s family.
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