Hospitals must regularly contend with medical emergencies, such as heart attacks or allergic drug reactions, that require an immediate response. Hospitals maintain supplies for such emergencies, known as “crash carts,” that contain equipment and medications for diagnosing and, if necessary, reviving patients. Monitoring and maintaining the crash carts requires the…
A study published recently in the Annals of Emergency Medicine looked at whether the use of a trained, professional interpreter with limited-English or non-English-speaking patients in hospital emergency departments (ED’s) reduced the incidence of medication errors and other mistakes. The study compared situations in which a trained interpreter was present…
Drug shortages are affecting hospitals and pharmacies around the country. The reasons range from supply problems preventing the production of drugs, to business decisions made by pharmaceutical companies that reduce or discontinue production of certain drugs. Some critically important medications, like drugs used to treat cancer, are often in short…
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal agency that reviews highway and aviation accidents and makes recommendations for safety regulations, could serve as a model for an entity to monitor patient safety, according to a number of celebrities and other advocates. A medical journal article co-authored by actor Dennis…
The hospital pharmacy services director at Minnesota’s Hennepin County Medical Center, Bruce Thompson, noticed several years ago that his staff would often discover medication errors when patients returned to the hospital after treatment. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune recounted the story of a patient who left the hospital after a kidney transplant…
A jury in Miami awarded $12.6 million to Shaniah Rolle, a teenager who had to have all four limbs amputated because of a vaccination error thirteen years ago. After a five-week trial, the jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict. Rolle will not recover the full amount of…
The family of a south Florida man has filed a lawsuit against North Shore Medical Center in Miami. The man, 79 year-old Richard Smith, died in July 2010 when he went to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath and received the wrong medication. The nurse who administered the allegedly…
An Ohio pharmacist spent six months in jail for a medication error that led to the death of a two year-old child. Emily Jerry’s parents took her to a Cleveland hospital in February 2006 for the last of a series of cancer treatments. Her doctors ordered an intravenous chemotherapy solution.…
Pharmacy and medication errors in hospitals and elsewhere in the health care system create substantial risks to patients, along with errors in diagnosis and treatment, equipment problems, and others. State governments often work to promote and improve protection of patient safety in health care. Oregon, as an example, has taken…
A patient at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in San Francisco, California died over the weekend, allegedly due to an incorrect medication dosage from a replacement nurse. About 23,000 nurses across California went on strike on Thursday, September 22, 2011 due to a dispute between the nurses’ union and the…