Political Discussion

www.npr.org

As a nurse faces prison for a deadly error, her colleagues worry: Could I be next?

Former nurse RaDonda Vaught is on trial on charges of reckless homicide. Her case raises consequential questions about how nurses use computerized medication-dispensing cabinets.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

A jury on Friday convicted former Nashville nurse RaDonda Vaught of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult after a medication error likely contributed to the death of a patient in 2017.

This sounds like a very slippery slope. Does this lead to doctors and nurses being charged with homicide if a patient dies in the OR or ER?

This was all a terrible accident involving a computerised medicine cabinet. Sure I could potentially see a civil case where damages are paid out by insurance. But criminal charges?
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.npr.org

As a nurse faces prison for a deadly error, her colleagues worry: Could I be next?

Former nurse RaDonda Vaught is on trial on charges of reckless homicide. Her case raises consequential questions about how nurses use computerized medication-dispensing cabinets.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

A jury on Friday convicted former Nashville nurse RaDonda Vaught of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult after a medication error likely contributed to the death of a patient in 2017.

This sounds like a very slippery slope. Does this lead to doctors and nurses being charged with homicide if a patient dies in the OR or ER?

This was all a terrible accident involving a computerised medicine cabinet. Sure I could potentially see a civil case where damages are paid out by insurance. But criminal charges?
Click to expand...
So they really want to incentivize people into medicine…
 
Negligence and manslaughter for sure. Murder is a stretch tbh, I'm surprised they went for that. AFAIK you have to show malice for murder. I guess that charges jurisdictionally.

But as far as liability, fuck yeah she's responsible as fuck. Which she herself acknowledges.
 
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debianlinux said:
To be fair, my rather liberal MIL's take as a medical professional for 50 years (nurse, administration, professor, nurse) is that she is personally liable on several levels. The murder charge is the only real outlier and should make interesting precedence whichever way it goes.
Click to expand...

While the NPR story I linked was prior conviction, she was convicted of murder on Friday by a Jury =\


The real issue here is the computerised system. It throws warnings you need to override multiple times a day. 99.9% of the time the warnings are meaningless. Unfortunately, having a system like that trains people to not read the warnings and just override them. They should not not read the warnings. But this can happen if you build a system like this. Compared to other similar systems, the one used here gave a magnitude more of meaningless warnings.

There should only be warnings if they are meaningful, or at least make the potentially dangerous ones look different.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I think they are just afraid of losing their jobs. Amazon has a history with closing any location that unionizes.

They also very effectively sell to their employees that "unions are bad".
Click to expand...

Yeah it’s also Amazon who have a history of just firing people because they can or to pass the time etc. They’re a brutal employer.

If you let your employer sell positions like that to you then yeah “sawdust for brains” is apt. I actively distrust anyone who aims for senior management positions and loathe anyone there. They’re all sociopaths.
 
Yeah as someone who works in a company that has retaliated against those who have attempted to organize... It's kind of terrifying. Like, I know it would be better for us, but in most cases those who feel they need to unionize are also those who feel the most replaceable.


The man is keeping us down.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
That feels like an oversimplification. These aren't people who are merely voting against their self-interest, they're voting *for* self-preservation, even if it's preserving systems and policies that exploit them. If your options are a shitty non-union job with Amazon, no job, or possibly an even shittier non-union job with someone else, what kind of choice is that? What are you supposed to do if you have kids, or a spouse that can't work, or a landlord eager to evict you, or medical bills going to collections, or all of the above? Not being willing to take a huge risk doesn't make people stupid, it makes them afraid and desperate to retain the only security they have, as tenuous as even that may be. It requires a lot of courage, and a lot of unity, to do something like this, and there are no guarantees that you don't end up out on your ass.

In the face of all of that, is it worth it to even try? Maybe! But how do you convince someone everyone of that?
Click to expand...

Perhaps it’s harsh but I really have a hard time relating to people who allow themselves to be sold positions by management. Although perhaps I’m also projecting given that I’m openly distainful of my own management team. The real problem is the lack of employee rights and the erosion of the right to associate to the point that the imbalance in the negotiating position between the employee and employer is so stark.
 
Here's to hoping that they start passing more of this sort of legislation. It's wrong to price gouge people for no other reason than they can, and they are actively killing people who depend on these medicines every month.

The House voted Thursday in favor of a bill to cap out-of-pocket costs on insulin at $35 a month, a policy Democrats hope will give them a concrete win to campaign on when they face voters in November as the rest of their health care agenda remains stalled.

www.politico.com

House passes insulin bill over insurers' opposition

Despite concerns about the bill’s policy and strategy from both sides of the aisle, nearly all House Democrats as well as a dozen Republicans voted for it Thursday.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.npr.org

As a nurse faces prison for a deadly error, her colleagues worry: Could I be next?

Former nurse RaDonda Vaught is on trial on charges of reckless homicide. Her case raises consequential questions about how nurses use computerized medication-dispensing cabinets.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

A jury on Friday convicted former Nashville nurse RaDonda Vaught of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult after a medication error likely contributed to the death of a patient in 2017.

This sounds like a very slippery slope. Does this lead to doctors and nurses being charged with homicide if a patient dies in the OR or ER?

This was all a terrible accident involving a computerised medicine cabinet. Sure I could potentially see a civil case where damages are paid out by insurance. But criminal charges?
Click to expand...

nolalady said:
So they really want to incentivize people into medicine…
Click to expand...

debianlinux said:
To be fair, my rather liberal MIL's take as a medical professional for 50 years (nurse, administration, professor, nurse) is that she is personally liable on several levels. The murder charge is the only real outlier and should make interesting precedence whichever way it goes.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I didn't expect this to happen *insert sarcasm*

www.npr.org

Why nurses are raging and quitting after the RaDonda Vaught verdict

The former Tennessee nurse faces prison time for a fatal medication mistake. Reaction from her peers was swift and fierce on social media and beyond ― and it isn't over.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

This is my favorite quote from the article:

"One thing that everybody agrees on is it's going to have a dampening effect on the reporting of errors or near misses, which then has a detrimental effect on safety," Aiken said. "The only way you can really learn about errors in these complicated systems is to have people say, 'Oh, I almost gave the wrong drug because ...'"

"Well, nobody is going to say that now."

And while there was tons to note about her criminal negligence, healthcare workers are still saying this sets quite a precedent for them.
But the controversy around Vaught's case is far from over. As of April 4, more than 8,200 people had joined a Facebook group planning a march in protest outside the courthouse during her sentencing on May 13. Among the event's planners is Tina Visant, the host of "Good Nurse Bad Nurse," a podcast that followed Vaught's case and opposed her prosecution.
 
nolalady said:
Here's to hoping that they start passing more of this sort of legislation. It's wrong to price gouge people for no other reason than they can, and they are actively killing people who depend on these medicines every month.

The House voted Thursday in favor of a bill to cap out-of-pocket costs on insulin at $35 a month, a policy Democrats hope will give them a concrete win to campaign on when they face voters in November as the rest of their health care agenda remains stalled.

www.politico.com

House passes insulin bill over insurers' opposition

Despite concerns about the bill’s policy and strategy from both sides of the aisle, nearly all House Democrats as well as a dozen Republicans voted for it Thursday.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
Click to expand...

An absolute no brainer to expand out. I know insurers won't like it (nor will insulin manufacturers when negotiations come back up) but this has helped a big number of seniors even in its limited Medicare rollout. Thrilled this is finally getting traction on an individual level.
 
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