I had the opportunity to stay on this patient’s care team despite the change in preceptors/hospitalists. Since I continued to stay on her care team, I became the source of information for the patient’s previous status, current condition, and future planned treatments for the oncoming hospitalists. However, due to a communication error, I relayed incorrect information to the hospitalist coming on service, leading to additional unnecessary hospital stay for the patient.
Initially, the cardiologist had planned a right heart catheterization for the patient on Monday. He had a conversation with the admitting hospitalist about his plan. He told the hospitalist that after reading the patient’s echocardiography, he believed that the patient’s right ventricle was in bad …show more content…
The hospitalist asked the cardiologist whether it would be better to defer the investigation to an institution with more resources since the patient would have to establish care with them anyway. The cardiologist responded by saying that he would be able to do the catheterization, but did not have time to do it until Monday. When the next hospitalist came on the service, he asked me if the patient was stable enough to be discharge. Relaying the cardiologist’s plan, I told the hospitalist that although she was stable, we were currently awaiting a right heart catheterization on Monday. During rounds the hospitalist mentioned the right heart catheterization to the patient; however, the patient stated that she was never told about the procedure and had never met the cardiologist. At the time, we thought that she may not have remembered the cardiologist given that she was seeing new doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants on daily basis. On Sunday, we met the cardiologist and asked him about the patient’s plan of care. The cardiologist responded that the patient’s case was dire and that she needed to have a right heart catheterization as she