St. Mary's Nurse Is Charged: Medication Error
HCA501
Project : Case showing problems created by nurse staff.
Professor: Dr.Muna Saloman
Project by: Varun Reddy Chintakunta
SID: 000228836
CASE "St. Mary's Nurse is Charged; Medication Error Led to Teen's Death" describes the criminal complaint
A Wisconsin nurse who was arrested on a felony charge stemming from an unintentional medical error that led to the death of a patient last summer will serve three years of probation after pleading no contest to reduced charges, but medical and nursing societies are concerned about the effect the case might have in future medical error situations.
Julie Thao was a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, WI, in the summer of 2006 when 16-year-old Jasmine Gant was admitted to give birth. Through a series of actions, shortcuts, …show more content…
If the epidural anesthesia needed to reduce the pain of labor and delivery had been packaged in a bag whose cap did not fit onto the main IV, no one could have put it directly into the bloodstream instead of the epidural space around the spine. If, as in some hospitals, two nurses check and double-check IV bags before they are hooked up to the main pump, this reduces the likelihood of error.
Instead of such safeguards, hospitals, like St. Mary's, are putting increasing faith in what are known as bar code computerized medication administration (BCMA) systems, which nurses use to scan bar codes on drugs and on patients' ID wristbands. This supposedly prevents nurses from giving the wrong patient the wrong drug, or administering the wrong dose, at the wrong time, through the wrong route.
Researchers like Ross Koppel at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School have documented the many errors these so-called error-proof devices actually create. Although promising, they do not work 100 percent of the time, says Michael Cohen at the Institute of Safe Medication Practices. Nor do they work with all
Project : Case showing problems created by nurse staff.
Professor: Dr.Muna Saloman
Project by: Varun Reddy Chintakunta
SID: 000228836
CASE "St. Mary's Nurse is Charged; Medication Error Led to Teen's Death" describes the criminal complaint
A Wisconsin nurse who was arrested on a felony charge stemming from an unintentional medical error that led to the death of a patient last summer will serve three years of probation after pleading no contest to reduced charges, but medical and nursing societies are concerned about the effect the case might have in future medical error situations.
Julie Thao was a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, WI, in the summer of 2006 when 16-year-old Jasmine Gant was admitted to give birth. Through a series of actions, shortcuts, …show more content…
If the epidural anesthesia needed to reduce the pain of labor and delivery had been packaged in a bag whose cap did not fit onto the main IV, no one could have put it directly into the bloodstream instead of the epidural space around the spine. If, as in some hospitals, two nurses check and double-check IV bags before they are hooked up to the main pump, this reduces the likelihood of error.
Instead of such safeguards, hospitals, like St. Mary's, are putting increasing faith in what are known as bar code computerized medication administration (BCMA) systems, which nurses use to scan bar codes on drugs and on patients' ID wristbands. This supposedly prevents nurses from giving the wrong patient the wrong drug, or administering the wrong dose, at the wrong time, through the wrong route.
Researchers like Ross Koppel at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School have documented the many errors these so-called error-proof devices actually create. Although promising, they do not work 100 percent of the time, says Michael Cohen at the Institute of Safe Medication Practices. Nor do they work with all