Questions about duty of care

[RetroRat]

Hi Optiboard,

Actually, I will digress quickly. As I find myself posting more and more on this forum I think I should take a minute to kind of introduce myself.
I am still very, very new to optics (Began training in November of 2009) with a Big W Vision Center (Big W = discount store, Vision Center = dispensing practice within discount store - still fairly new to Australia). I've been lucky to work with some very experienced (and patient) optoms and dispensers who have been all too willing to answer the copious amount of questions I've had for them. However, in the fast paced retail environment, I've found these forums to be an excellent supplement to what I'm learning, and a great place to bounce ideas around in. (And the TIPS ON DISPENSING thread blew my little mind, a LOT of seriously useful information guys, thanks!)

end irrelevant talking;

Today I had a patient walk in, after our optom had gone home,complaining of something lodged in his eye. He had been working in a remote location and had been suffering for ~6 days. I questioned him about the sort of work he'd been doing and some of the symptoms that have developed over the six days. I was getting worried when he mentioned that his eyes were sticking together in the mornings. His eyes were super inflamed and most probably infected, so I walked him out of our store and to a nearby practice with an optometrist.

I left him in their care, and later heard that he was taken to hospital for surgical removal of some metal that had become embedded in his eye.

I was left to reflect on this and my part in the whole ordeal, specifically what my ethical duty of care to this patient was. He wasn't a previous patient with the practice, nor any other Big W practices before, he'd just walked him hoping to have someone look at his eye. This all happened very quickly, but in retrospect I probably would have felt more comfortable quickly getting this blokes contact details just to follow up with him in a couple of days.

What do you all think a dispensers duty of care to a patient is in situations like these, as far as I'm concerned he became a patient as soon as he walked into the practice, but I dunno.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? Please throw in your two cents, I'd love to hear what you think

Thanks,
Retrorat

[WFruit]

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who either wait or just walk into a shop rather than GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!

As far as how you handled it, you did exactly what you should have done: listened to the patient, cared, and referred him to a qualified optical professional. The fact that you walked him there rather than just tell him where to go was very good.

While it would have been nice to get contact information for a follow up (have you checked with the practice that you took him to? They might have gotten it), getting him help comes before getting him information. There's a great Monty Python sketch on the subject, as the patient bleeds to death filling out the insurance forms.

[Jacqui]

As a nurse, I would have done the same thing.

[Uncle Fester]

You did exactly the right thing.

As for future "duty of care" I think you can't go wrong as long as you have the patient see someone as or more qualified than yourself help them.

[Ginster]

Wlcome to a very rewarding profession. You are a Human Being first before an Optician, You will contribute much to this industry. Just keep caring about people the way you do now. Pt's will come see you for there eyecare needs for years to come.

[Striderswife]

I think the only, only thing you could have also done (which you may have but just didn't say) was to make some sort of documentation that the man was in fact in your office, and detailed how you handled it. If you got any of his personal information, make a patient record or chart, and simply say what happened. It sounds like everything turned out just as it should have, but there are people in the world that will (for whatever reason) come back to haunt you. I learned a long time ago it's a good idea to document everything.

[RetroRat]

I think the only, only thing you could have also done (which you may have but just didn't say) was to make some sort of documentation that the man was in fact in your office, and detailed how you handled it. If you got any of his personal information, make a patient record or chart, and simply say what happened. It sounds like everything turned out just as it should have, but there are people in the world that will (for whatever reason) come back to haunt you. I learned a long time ago it's a good idea to document everything.

Ah, that's a good point. Worst part was it wasn't even my usual practice, so I really hope that for whatever reason it doesn't come back to haunt us!

I appreciate the vote of confidence guys, it's easy to second guess yourself.

There's a great Monty Python sketch on the subject, as the patient bleeds to death filling out the insurance forms.

Haha I was thinking something not unlike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7BH_O2DDTc

No one was sued in the making of this video (about 30 years later and it'd be a different story! :hammer:)