Pharmacist gets 6 months in prison for med error

I echo a comment made in the article..why report errors? There is no way you're not going to be blamed..as this article so clearly indicates.

Here's a link to a newspaper story, as opposed to a press release.

Tragic mistake, yes. Deserving of jail time, no.

Are we in agreement to the fact that healthcare workers are the most neglected and blamed people? I hope to see the day when standards are met both in individual and organizational level. Will that sound like "wishful thinking"? To all the Nurses here..., i salute each and everyone for "tiny" miracles you're able to impart every single day.

Anyone who has ever worked acute care understands all too well how this happened. When we are in school, we're trained in all the medication "rights"...pt, time....It's some small wonder that the nurse that hung the solution was not punished. This is a tragedy...no doubt about it..so many losses involved. Tasks, workloads are assigned assuming that "all systems are up and running"-when the computer is "down", staff is just supposed to "make the best of the situation".

The tech gets off scot free?

Is it the norm for a tech to mix chemo drugs? I thought the pharmacist is supposed to do any compounding of medications.

This is tragic all the way around.

One night, we had an unscheduled computer outage (my small hospital does not have a 24 hr pharmacy, and this was like 3 am). From years in the computer field, I always print out my meds for the whole 12 hour shift, and assume the computers will go down at the worst possible time. Several of my coworkers, who only printed out the meds until the beginning of the midnight to 7 shift, suddenly didn't know what meds were due for their patients. IS did a "whuh happened?" and we didn't have an idea of when the system would be back. We all sat down and started going thru the charts, trying to figure out what was due -- not that big a deal for a new admission, but a freakin' nightmare for folks who have been on the floor for 2 weeks. Worse, lab was calling us wanting to know who needed what labs -- we had cardiac enzymes due on several pts. Luckily, the computer was only down 2 hours, and nothing bad happened, but I don't think "civilians" recognize how dependent we are on all too fragile technology.

Back in my old world, computers went down, all the users got a break. In a hospital/lab/pharmacy, the computers go down, and lives can be lost. As an industry, we really, REALLY need to have more robust systems than we do.

Where I work, there is only one pharmacist on at night (I think we have 400 beds). The pharmacy is frequently swamped with orders, and if a code happens, there is only a tech left in the pharmacy. Yes, we have errors. All of our NICU meds are sent to us in syringes. One night I was handed a syringe with 3.2mls of Gent, not 0.32ml for a 600 gm baby. I'd rather draw up my own (we used to, but JHACO thinks there is more chance of an error). One time 3 babies were given the adult concentration of Gent, sent by the pharmacy as a pediatric dose. We found out when 2 of the babies had very high levels. No.3 had been discharged home. We check everything, but some things we just can't see.

We are supposed to be going to a computer system for meds, soon. Sounds like we really have to print everything up just to make sure nothing is missed. Computers are supposed to reduce the amount of paper we use, but it seems that we waste more trees, not less.

So, we are all human, and errors happen in the blink of an eye. No, he didn't deserve jail. I hope he appeals, and if need be, as high as he can go.

According to the link provided, Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) introduced a bill, HR 5491, that would have set mandatory standards for education, training and regulation for all pharmacy techs. Apparently, at the time of this incident, Ohio was one of eleven states that did not regulate pharmacy technicians and, as a result, the tech who mixed the chemo could not be held liable for her mistake. Instead, the board certified pharmacist was held responsible and, as we see, sentenced to jail.

From the newspaper story:

The bill was introduced, referred to committee and did not make it out of committee.

This is all so wrong in so many ways. How on earth can industries---like retail pharmacy chains---that are supposed to be serving the needs of people be against legislation that would PROTECT people? Wouldn't legislation mandating educational standards for people preparing medications actually save the pharmacy chains money in the long run by decreasing the chances that those technicians will make costly mistakes---for which the companies should be sued?