Home care patient rights

Federal law requires that all individuals receiving home care services be informed of their rights as a patient. The National Association for Home Care has developed a model patient bill of rights based on the patient rights currently enforced by law.

Home care patients have the right to:

* be fully informed of all his or her rights and responsibilities by the home care agency
* choose care providers
* appropriate and professional care in accordance with physician orders
* receive a timely response from the agency to his or her request for service * be admitted for service only if the agency has the ability to provide safe, professional care at the level of intensity needed
* receive reasonable continuity of care
* receive information necessary to give informed consent prior to the start of any treatment or procedure
* be advised of any change in the plan of care, before the change is made
refuse treatment within the confines of the law and to be informed of the consequences of his or her action
* have health care providers comply with advance directives in accordance with state law requirements
* be informed within reasonable time of anticipated termination of service or plans for transfer to another agency
* be fully informed of agency policies and charges for services, including eligibility for third-party reimbursements

Medication errors impact children’s chemotherapy

Ten percent of children with a once-deadly childhood cancer do not get the correct chemotherapy regime because of medication errors, new research contends.

According to the report in the Aug. 14 online edition of Cancer, 9.9 percent of the oral chemotherapy medications were prescribed or given incorrectly to children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Medical errors in the United States cause up to 98,000 hospital deaths per year and are thought to be common among outpatients. But they have not been well studied, particularly in children.

Dr. James A. Taylor, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, conducted a study that found errors in 10 percent of the medications administered. Of the 17 errors in 69 children, 12 were the result of how the medications were administered and five were caused by prescribing errors -- incorrect dosages.

One of the ways of eliminating error is using electronic prescribing systems, said Dr. Lydia Gonzalez-Ryan, clinical director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "There needs to be standardized practices," she added. "We need to get into preprinted orders that set up quality control."