Death after discharge--what would you do?

摘要

In the usual pile of paperwork was a newspaper clipping. Joe (not his real name to respect confidentiality) had died 2 weeks after his discharge to another facility. I had a feeling it would happen, but it greatly upset me nevertheless. The questions were the usual ones a doctor asks when a patient dies. Could I have done anything to prevent it? What should I do now to better understand what happened and to prevent it from happening in the future? Usually the answers are relatively straightforward. But this situation was different from other patient deaths I had experienced. What would you have done? What would you do now?