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Learning from errors
CASE REPORT
Learning from errors: unnecessary intensive care unit admissions
  1. Cecil A Rambarat1,
  2. David E Winchester2
  1. 1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
  2. 2Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Cecil A Rambarat, cecil.rambarat{at}medicine.ufl.edu

Summary

An elderly man was transferred to our emergency department with reported ventricular tachycardia requiring intravenous amiodarone and intensive care unit admission. Device interrogation, the following day, revealed only frequent premature ventricular contractions and non-sustained ventricular tachycardia in a patient with a known history of these conditions. The patient underwent unnecessary invasive monitoring after being emergently transferred to our facility and admitted to the intensive care unit. Fortunately, our patient did not suffer any unwarranted side effects from intravenous amiodarone. This case reports on some negative consequences of inappropriate intensive care unit admissions and how they could have been avoided.

  • arrhythmias
  • health economics
  • healthcare improvement and patient safety
  • adult intensive care
  • drug misuse (including addiction)

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-220806

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CAR was actively involved in the patient’s care and analysed the patient’s presentation and composed the initial draft of the manuscript. DEW was the attending physician involved in the patient’s care and reviewed the initial draft of the manuscript and made edits and added further insights where necessary.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.