A senior nurse who gave the wrong drugs to a heart patient who died hours later may face professional misconduct charges.
A 69-year-old man died less than two hours after the unnamed nurse gave him another patient's medication.
The nurse, who has since stopped practising, overrode a hospital medication administration system to give him three drugs, one of which was a beta-blocker, solatol.
The unnamed patient, who had a slow heart rate, should not have been given the beta-blocker.
The Health and Disciplinary Commissioner has referred the nurse to its director of proceedings who has yet to decide if any further action will be taken.
The man, admitted to the unnamed hospital on a Saturday late in 2010, was diagnosed as suffering from a heart attack as well as other serious health issues including blood cancer.
He was moved to a medical ward and on the Monday the nurse failed to notice the man's condition had deteriorated and did not ask for help.
He was given the wrong drugs later that day while another medication he was supposed to get was withheld and he died at 7:10pm.
The nurse realised her error with the medication before the patient died but did not call for a doctor and only reported her mistake two days after the incident.
The Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill said the nurse breached the patient's rights for administering incorrect medication, failing to discuss with a prescriber that she had withheld medication, failing to immediately report the medication error and seek a medical review, and failing to recognise the significance of the man's deteriorating condition.
The DHB that the nurse worked for was not found to be in breach of its obligations as the breaches were caused by individual error.
NZN