Mrs U complained that her mother, Mrs T, was not given adequate treatment when she was admitted to hospital with an infection and she was discharged despite having had a blood test that showed infection.
What happened
Mrs T was admitted to hospital with hip pain. Clinicians decided that it was appropriate to discharge her after about a week because they considered her to be clinically fit. After Mrs T's discharge, her final blood test result arrived at the ward. The result indicated signs of infection. Mrs T returned to hospital about a week later and was diagnosed with sepsis. She was treated, but deteriorated. She died a few days after readmission.
What we found
The Trust reasonably prepared Mrs T for discharge. However, in light of the significant results that arrived after Mrs T had left hospital, more should have been done to follow up her care after discharge. We believe this would have led to further treatment. We did not consider that it was likely that further treatment would have prevented Mrs T's death, but we felt that her family lost the opportunity to be reassured about this.
Putting it right
The Trust agreed to apologise to Mrs T's family, complete a clinical review to identify how to prevent anything similar happening again and give an update on a review it has started into how staff check blood tests after a patient's discharge.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
West Midlands
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Not applicable