Patient Infection

There were numerous interesting cases relevant to the study that surfaced from data collection and analysis. One was a 94 year old male who had been admitted in to the care of the elderly ward, and had developed blurry vision 8 days into the admission. Following discussion in the ward round, the Foundation Year 1 doctor wrote an Ophthalmology referral form, which was faxed by the ward clerk to the ophthalmic secretaries. One secretary then brought a copy of the fax to the on call doctor, who contacted the ward to bring the patient to the eye clinic with a healthcare assistant. The receptionist at the eye clinic booked him on to the emergency clinic following which the patient had a 1 hour wait before he was seen by a doctor. Following a detailed history and examination, it was found that the patient had simply not been prescribed Latanoprost and Cosopt for glaucoma; his resultant intraocular pressure was 40 mmHg in the right eye and 38 mmHg in the left eye.

Another case was that of a 65 year old female admitted in to the acute admissions unit with symptoms of a urinary tract infection. She was found to be mildly tachycardic through her admission and was commenced on regular Bisoprolol, following which she was discharged home. Throughout her admission, she was not prescribed regular Timolol she was supposed to be receiving for right eye glaucoma. She then was admitted 6 days later with a collapse of an unknown cause. On clarification, this patient’s carers had been continuing her topical therapy as well as those prescribed in the hospital i.e. the patient received dual beta-blocker therapy, being a very likely cause for the patient presenting with a collapse. Cases such as these help illustrate the clinical significance of omitting ocular