Olive View nurse fired after death of patient
A nurse at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center who failed to administer a critical test to an emergency room patient complaining of chest pains was fired Wednesday, county health officials announced.
Christopher Jones, 33, died several hours after arriving at the Sylmar hospital last Sunday. He was never given a test to check if his heart was functioning properly, in spite of describing pain in his chest and arm.
“The treatment of this patient was not consistent with Olive View’s high standards and does not meet my expectations or those of the hospital leadership,” county health chief Dr. Bruce Chernof said in a statement. “The hospital took an appropriate definitive step today to ensure that the hospital’s high standards are met for all patients.”
Olive View officials determined that although the nurse did triage Jones and provide some evaluation, the nurse failed to follow all emergency room policies correctly. The nurse did not record the location or severity of Jones’ pain, according to medical records reviewed by The Times. Jones’ pulse, blood pressure and blood sugar levels were tested, but there is no record that Jones received an electrocardiogram, a test used to diagnose heart attacks.
County officials did not release the nurse’s name.
The county coroner has not yet determined the precise cause of death.
State regulators are investigating the incident, one of several recent problems involving patient care at Olive View.
Other mishaps include the burning of a surgical patient Sept. 24 during an operating room fire; in another, a patient died from eating toxic oleander leaves as a county police supervisor refused to retrieve the antidote from a nearby hospital.
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