Britthaven Nursing Centers has less than one week to submit a plan of correction in response to an investigative report citing its nurses' failure to follow facility procedures in response to a patient's death.
According to the Jan. 14 report released by the N.C. Division of Facility Services, a nursing employee did not know proper procedures to alert the nursing staff when she found Lois M. Edwards, 78, dead in her room Dec. 28 at Britthaven, located at 1716 Legion Road in Chapel Hill.
Edwards was discovered with her neck trapped between the bedrail and mattress and her lower body on the floor, reports state.
Although the nurse found Edwards unresponsive at 6 a.m., the report showed that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not administered until 15 minutes later.
An interview in the report with the nurse on duty indicated that she initially panicked when she discovered Edwards. "'I wasn't sure what to do. ... What stumped me was that she ... had obviously been dead for several hours. ... I didn't start CPR right away. ... I admit I was wrong in that,'" the report stated.
Interviews with other nurses in the report indicated that three out of the five nurses who responded to Edwards did not know the facility emergency codes that are used to alert staff and summon help.
In the event of a cardiac arrest, one nurse said she would start CPR and call for help. "'I would page for the code. ... What is the code?'"
The report indicated that the nurse paused to think for "approximately 32 seconds" before remembering that it would be a Code Blue.
Britthaven is required to submit a plan of correction by Jan. 27 that will address the measures or changes that are needed to ensure the deficient practice will not occur again.