October 2018
Date: 10 December 2018
- Details:
The complainant phoned in to the Patient Experience Department as they were not happy that the crew did not assist their husband whilst in the ambulance and they felt that one of the crew members was very rude and unhelpful. The crew member did not help to ease the stressful situation.
- Findings:
The Investigating Manager reviewed the EPCR and CAD details, met with both crew members and requested statements from them and also had a meeting with the complainant and patient.
Both the crew members recognised within their statements and during the meeting that they should have dealt with the situation in a more professional and sympathetic way. During the meeting with the crew members it was identified that one member of the crew needed to improve the quality of their patient assessments without making assumptions, modify the way they talk to patient and relatives and try and improve the perception of how others see them.
- Lesson learnt / action taken:
All the lessons learnt within this complaint were mainly aimed at the one crew member who the complainant had the most issues dealing with at the time of the incident. The most important lesson was for the crew member to improve patient assessments and not make assumptions before speaking to the patient and gaining a full understanding of the situation. With this incident they admit that they thought it was "just another patient with on-going abdominal pain". The complainant was obviously worried about her husband and not sure what was going to happen. The job did not start well and all the other small failings snowballed making them a bigger issue by the time they handed the patient over at hospital.
The second lesson to be learnt was for the clinician to modify the way they talk to people. By their own admission they talk very quickly. The Investigating Manager advised that they need to make a concerted effort to slow down their speech; speak clearly and make themselves better understood. This will give others more confidence that things are under control and should improve the perception they give to others.
- Date:01 October 2018