St. Charles Medical Center – Bend

St. Charles Medical Center - Bend
St. Charles Health System
Geography
Location	Bend, Oregon, US
Coordinates	44°04′02″N 121°16′08″W / 44.0672°N 121.2690°W / 44.0672; -121.2690Coordinates: 44°04′02″N 121°16′08″W / 44.0672°N 121.2690°W / 44.0672; -121.2690[1]
Organisation
Care system	Public
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	226

St. Charles Medical Center – Bend is a hospital in Bend, Oregon, United States. It is the largest hospital in Central Oregon, and a level 2 trauma center. St. Charles medical center [SCMC-B] is owned and operated by St. Charles Health System, Inc. (SCHS), a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation. SCHS also owns and operates the St. Charles Medical Center - Redmond.

History

The first Hospital in Bend named St. Charles was built in 1922 on "Hospital Hill" located in downtown Bend. The building was named in honor of Bishop Charles Joseph O'Reilly, the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker. This building was to replace a house at 930 Broadway that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton, Indiana were using for medical facilities.^[2]

In 1951 a more modern facility was built on the Hospital Hill site.^[2]

In 1972 the Sisters of St. Joseph transferred the assets of the hospital to a new not for profit corporation called St. Charles Memorial Hospital Inc.^[3]

On October 12, 1975 the new St. Charles Medical Center was dedicated.^[4] In March 1977 the old St. Charles Memorial Hospital building was demolished.^[5]

on January 1, 2001 Central Oregon District Hospital and St. Charles Medical Center merged to create Cascade Healthcare Services, later renamed to Cascade Healthcare Community, inc. As part of the merger the hospital was renamed to Central Oregon Community Hospital.^[6] In 2003 the hospital's name was changed again to the current St. Charles Medical Center Redmond.^[7]

On February 15, 2010 the Catholic Diocese of Baker announced its intention to dissolve the official sponsorship relationship of St. Charles Medical Center-Bend by the Catholic Church. As part of the announcement both the Church and CHC said "very little will change at St. Charles Bend as a result of this decision. However, Catholic Mass will no longer be celebrated in the hospital's chapel, and all items considered Catholic will be removed from the hospital and returned to the church." The dissolution of the Church's sponsorship ended a 92 year relationship.^[8]

Notable Events

Loretta Macpherson Death -

On December 1st, 2014 a local area resident, Loretta Macpherson was admitted to the St. Charles Medical Center's Emergency Department to be seen for anxiety. Macpherson was suffering from anxiety several days after a successful brain tumor removal at The Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. When Macpherson informed doctors at the St. Charles Medical Center ER department of her anxiety issues, Macpherson's physician ordered an anti-seizure medicine. The attending physician put the order into the St. Charles Pharmacy Department and the order was received correctly, however the pharmacy inadvertently prescribed Macpherson the wrong medication. Instead of the correct medication of Fosphenytoin, the Pharmacy Department mislabeled an IV bag of Rocuronium, a paralyzing agent, and sent it to the Emergency Department for administration to Macpherson. The mislabeled drug was administered to Macpherson causing Macpherson to stop breathing and to go into cardiopulmonary arrest. She experienced an anoxic brain injury and was put on life support. Macpherson was taken off of life support and died three days later.^{[9] [10]}

The St. Charles Health System later put out a series of press releases admitting fault to the major medication error, with the clinical chief officer Dr. Michael Boileau stating; "We believe that a tragic medication error occurred, and that mistake, that error, has caused her death. This appears to be a misidentified medicine. We thought we are going to give one medicine,and we gave another medicine."^[11][12] The medication error resulting in Macpherson's death sparked extensive media coverage throughout the nation and worldwide.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]}

On September 22nd, 2015 it was discovered that a Federal report by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services completed an investigation into the December 1st, 2014 event revealing that the medication mislabeling was not the only major error that allegedly led to Macpherson's death. The Federal report states that the hospital received three violations including Patient Rights, Pharmaceutical Services and Nursing Services.^[19] Among allegations, the Federal report states that the St. Charles Emergency Room Physician overseeing Macpherson had ordered the attending nurse to provide continuous cardiac monitoring and continuous pulse oximetry monitoring for the patient prior to medication being administered. Dr. Michel Boileau, St. Charles’ chief clinical officer, was quoted in December saying that the staff determined that monitoring Macpherson’s vitals was not necessary. "“There wasn’t any indication to do so, Her management and the degree of surveillance and observation that she was given was appropriate for the medicine that the staff believed she was receiving.”^[20] The Federal CMS report includes information about the hospitals policy's to monitor "response to any medication, and particularly one that is being given for the first time, is monitored by nursing staff for therapeutic or adverse effects. This monitoring includes, but is not limited to: Vital signs, lab values, blood levels, therapeutic ranges, and the patient's perceptions. Documentation of patient's response to all PRN medications is required."^[21] The Federal report also includes instructions from www.drugs.com to monitor patients closely^[22] when receiving Fosphenytoin via IV along with The 2013 Nursing Handbook.

The report concludes that the nurse handling Macpherson acknowledged the doctors order to hook up pulse oximetry monitoring but then discontinued it without an order to do so. The report further acknowledges that the nurse never hooked Macpherson up to cardiac monitoring.^[23] The report ends with acknowledging that Macpherson's room was located directly across from the nurses station and the Chief Nursing Officer states "If the patient had been on cardiac monitoring as ordered, an audible alarm would have sounded and alerted staff at the nurse's station when the patient's cardiac status declined."

The incident is under investigation by Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel.^[24]

See also

• List of hospitals in Oregon
• St. Charles Medical Center Heliport
• St. Charles Health System
• U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Federal Report January 26th, 2015

References