HospitalInspections.org

Based on staff interview and review of the clinical record for patient #1, the hospital failed to ensure that 16 of 16 verbal and/or telephone orders were signed by the physician within 48 hours as required.

Findings were:

A review of the physician orders for patient #1 revealed that 16 of 16 verbal and/or telephone orders were signed by the physician between 96 hours at the shortest and 20 days as the longest after the orders were taken by the nursing staff for the respective physician. This was confirmed in interview and by record review with staff #1 in the conference room on 9/6/11.