incident report
English 306 Rowley
Incident report
Background: You are the supervisor of the night shift at the Sunset Estates nursing home, which is part of a chain of nursing facilities in California. Your facility houses elderly residents in need of nursing care. Three-quarters of the residents are in Medi-Cal beds; that is, Sunset Estates receives $125 a day from the state of California for the food, board, medications and care for each of these residents. However, the cost of the medications alone for many of these residents exceeds that per-diem payment, and you know that Sunset Estates is losing money. To minimize loss, the parent corporation who owns the chain has reduced night staffing by 25%, reasoning that residents are asleep at that time and so need less care. Nevertheless, staff are still required by law to check on residents once per hour, and to initial charts to show that the check was done. Sunset Estates has several minor infractions on its books from recent state inspections.
Situation: Elena Thompson, a nurse’s aide, finds that Mrs. Lopez, a bedridden patient, has fallen out of bed. Mrs. Lopez has bruises on her legs and three fingers are bent at awkward angles, suggesting they may be fractured. Mrs. Lopez’ arms and legs are cold, which could indicate that she has been out of bed for some time. Mrs. Lopez was awake when found, but had no memory how she came to be out of bed.
After you make sure Mrs. Lopez has received appropriate medical care, you do an investigation, talking to the janitorial staff and the aides scheduled to be in the area. Everyone questioned says that that they didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. When you check the charts, Elena has initialed the bed checks consistently every hour on the hour, though the initials are very uniform. When questioned, Elena responds that she did the bed checks on time.
Considerations You know Sunset Estates is scheduled for a state inspection the following week. A negative inspection could result in significant fines, possibly even a loss of licensure, for the company. Because of the accumulation of recent infractions, inspectors will be paying particular attention to incident reports—one of which you are now going to write.
Elena has always been a conscientious and hard-working employee, as are you; both of you have hopes of career advancement with this company. You are legally and ethically bound to tell the truth in this report.
Task Please compose a 2-3 page incident report in memo format. You must tell the truth, and not omit any relevant details. Keep in mind that your incident report will almost certainly have multiple audiences. Points: 50. First draft due: Oct. 9.
English 306 Rowley
Elements of an incident report
1. Identification details: who and what was involved; all relevant data (names, contact info, ID #, who was working at the time).
2. Type of incident (personal injury, fire, burglary, etc.). Language should be as precise as possible (rather than “arm injury,” e.g., state “abrasions on right wrist.”)
3. Time and location of incident. 4. Description of what happened. 5. What was done after the incident (as applicable). 6. What caused the incident (if known). 7. Recommendations (as appropriate).