My preceptor and I were in a laboring patient's room charting yesterday when the patient fell asleep. The TV was on in the background with the Ellen show on. It caught our attention when Dennis Quaid was talking about the medication error that occurred to his newborn twins. More about that in a second. But, watch this clip of the prank Ellen had Dennis play on unsuspecting people in a starbucks. WE WERE DYING with laughter!!! Trying not to wake up our patient... It was sooo funny:
Now, about the tragic medication error that effected his infant twins and now has his attention focused on eliminating medical errors: Here is a link to a 60 minutes segment that does a good job explaining the near fatal medication error....Watch the video on the webpage - just amazing.
This is a real problem in healthcare... I worry about it DAILY. Knowing that I am human and that I have and will make errors makes me scared to death that I will make a MEDICATION error. I double and triple check my meds, almost to the point of being inefficient... But, honestly, it scares me to think about accidentally giving the wrong drug or wrong dose, etc.
There are technological advances in medication administration available to help control the nearly 100,000 deaths due to medical errors each year. But, they are expensive. Our hospital is implementing a new computer based med system in a few months... I am very pleased as it will be one more check between the patient and a mistake.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Oh, by the way.... the "Pumpkin Spice Latte" that Dennis Quaid ordered from starbucks is AWESOME!!!! and only available for a limited time....
(OK, starbucks, you can send me a check for the advertisement!)
lol....I love Ellen....she cracks me up
This scares me too. I worked as a pharmacy tech in a hospital during my first undergrad degree, and it was astounding how similarly drugs are packaged.
Post a Comment