Has anyone heard about the 3 babies in Indiana that were killed because of the drug mix up? What i gathered from the news report and some online articles was that the babies were premature, one weighed about 1 pound and was like 3 months old and some of the others were just a few weeks premature and getting stronger and healthier. What happened was a pharmacy technician had stocked heperin at 10,000 units per ml instead of hep-lock at 10 units per ml. All that i really know about the drugs is that heparin thins the blood and helps prevent blood clots and heplock flushes iv lines to keep them flowing. Anyway, they didn't do any autopsies on the babies but they figured they died of internal bleeding. i guess in order for the nurses to get the medications they have to put in their code and the patients code to open the cabinet once they get what they need it closes immediately so they don't grab a bunck of different things at once. So the hospital tried a little to prevent things like this from happening but it still failed. Really, what can anyone make to prevent human error. The hospital now is makiing two nurses check the drug before they administer it to a patient in peds. intensive care and are also trying to construct another safetyguard using barcodes.
So what do you think, do hospitals do enough? Are the the thousands of errors preventable or inevitable? Is it the way hospitals are run or the way doctors and nurses are taught? I really can't say, but it's very scary especailly since i may be a nurse someday.