Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert
Doctor, Nurses Both May Have Liability For Infusion SNAFU
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A court must consider whether Ohio physician Josef Korinek was negligent, the Court of Appeals for Ohio's Eighth Circuit ruled in Czarney v. Porter et. al. (2006-Ohio-2471). When Ann Marie Czarney was admitted to Amherst Hospital with bleeding in her gastrointestinal tract, a nurse called Korinek and asked him what to do.
Korinek ordered a blood infusion for the patient, but didn't specify a rate. Typical guidelines call for blood infusions to run "wide open" in cases like Czarney's, but the nurse only administered the blood at 125 ml. per hour. When Korinek came in, he examined Czarney but didn't check on her infusion rate because he assumed it was "wide open." The patient later died, and an expert testified that she wouldn't have died if Korinek had changed the infusion rate when he checked on her.
A lower court absolved the hospital of liability because Korinek was deemed negligent, but the appeals court said a jury should consider whether Korinek's alleged negligence absolves the hospital and nurses of their own liability for not setting the infusion rate properly.
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