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Should discharging a patient with an IV cannula in situ be designated as a never event?
A recent news story in Nursing Times Nurses reported that nurses have been disciplined with one suspended after the trust revealed a patient had been discharged with a cannula left in their arm.
The trust has declared the incident, which happened in early April, as a local “never event”.
A Never Event is a serious, largely preventable patient safety incident that should not occur if the available preventative measures have been implemented by healthcare providers. In most cases a Never Event is defined if the incident results in death or severe harm to patients.
Last year the Department of Health published an expanded list of 25 never events and information on these can be found on the links below.
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Readers' comments (3)
Anonymous | 21-Jun-2012 9:19 am
Does any other Trust or the DoH list this as a 'never event'?
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Anonymous | 21-Jun-2012 9:30 am
No not never?
surely any error is a 'never event'? and clearly discharging a patient with an i.v. cannula is an error unless there is agreement with a district nurse for ongoing treatment and who will be visiting the patient in their home the same day to check it. otherwise the risks involved in this malpractice are very obvious.
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Anonymous | 24-Jun-2012 9:44 pm
This 'never event' has happened recently within the department in which I work.
It is a Critical Care area.
The High Dependency Unit does not discharge patients home, but due to the increasing length of time patients are remaining within this area after being discharged to ward care this now presents a risk to safe discharge.
Luckily the patient came back in to the department and had the IV cannula removed immediately, with an apology from the staff nurse involved!
This was not a malicious act, but a genuine mistake.
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