Derek Johnson, MD, is employed, as an anesthesiologist, by Community Hospital of the West. While providing care for the hospital’s surgical and obstetrical anesthetic procedure patients for fifteen years, Dr. Johnson was hospitalized at Community Hospital of the West due to septicemia. Septicemia is poisoning of the blood that is caused by bacteria. Upon examination, Dr. Johnson was found to have several abscesses on his arm which was where the septicemia originated. Once the news unfolded throughout the hospital, of Dr. Johnson’s hospitalization, the staff began to openly discuss the cause. Many of the staff nurses thought Dr. Johnson suffered from a drug addition to morphine. He was accused of documenting on the narcotic sign out log that he was providing morphine to his patients, who sometimes did not need it. Furthermore, many of the patients lacked documentation in medical record pertaining to the actual administration of the drug (Shaw & Carter, 2015). …show more content…
Johnson’s hospitalization, one of the staff nurses attempted to report her concern to the chief of anesthesiology. Nonetheless, the chief did not question Dr. Johnson or pursue a formal report regarding the nurse’s concern to avoid confrontation. After the chief dismissed the nurse’s fear, the nurse did not notify anyone beyond the chief of anesthesiology. In this scenario, there is a lack of accountability and supervision by the hospital staff. There were not hospital policies and procedures in place to confirm narcotic drug administration. No one was assigned to counting or confirming the drug logbook to find out where the narcotics were being