Joan arrived at a local hospital with her father-in-law, Nigel, to seek treatment for him. Nigel was visiting Joan and her husband from his home country. While Nigel has been at their home, Joan and her husband have noticed that he has not been feeling well and after conversations with him he stated he has not felt well for quite some time but did not want to worry them. His condition worsened today, and Joan decided that she would take him to the emergency room. When they were taken to a patient room, Joan asked for an interpreter as Nigel is a non-English speaker and Joan has limited fluency in the language he speaks. The physician came into the room to examine Nigel. After the exam he ordered several tests based on Nigel’s symptoms and left the room. After the tests were completed, Nigel and Joan were left in the room for several hours. The interpreter was no longer with them and they did not have the physician or any other hospital staff come to check on them. Joan was afraid to leave the room in the event that the physician would return while she was away. At some point a nurse returned to the room and began discussing the need to set-up an appointment with an Oncologist and provided information on the side-effects of chemotherapy, after which she promptly left the room before Joan could ask any questions. Nigel was confused about what was said as there was no interpreter in the room. Joan was in shock realizing that her father-in-law had cancer and that she was now tasked with telling him using her limited vocabulary in his language. She proceeded to tell him that he had cancer.
Case Study Questions:
1) Explain the many mistakes that were made regarding the care of this patient. Specifically, use the data (patient care process cycle) for quality management and performance improvement to explain.
2) Identify how a patient-centered care perspective would have changed the experience of both Nigel and Joan.
