Mistakes. We all make them. But, to what extent should we as pharmacists be held accountable? In Ohio, a pharmacist is being indicted for a med error that led to the death of a 2 year-old girl-here's the link. The discussion on the matter and impact on the profession is also very interesting and the ethics surrounding it are intriguing. There is also mention of mandated pharmacy technician training as well. Here's an article that goes a bit more in depth on the circumstances of the error and subsequent death, as well as more information on Emily's Law.
Eric Cropp, the pharmacist who performed the final double check on the chemo IV that ultimately killed Emily Jerry, has had his license revoked. Here's the testimony from the Jerry family. It's pretty intense, just to warn you. Here are the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Minutes of that session-the testimony and conclusion are on pages 21-25.
A lot to think about witht his issue-we could probably hold an entire meeting discussing this as we did with the 20/20 piece on med errors last year. I'll try and keep everyone updated on this one.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Pharmacist Indicted for Med Error
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2 comments:
This story really makes me think... what could have happened to allow this error to get by the many checks and double checks that go into chemo production. I understand that the pharmacist is the last check on these products... but what about the nurse hanging the bag? Was the 23.4% covered by a label? Why was there 23.4% NaCl in the compounding area? The details are vague with this story... I would be curious to see the system errors that went into this horrible event.
The vial says must be diluted. The tech had to use several vials and didnt notice that ?
Rob
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