Holiday Blog Break
I'll be mostly away from the blog through January 2nd. Happy Holidays to all of you… here's a little photo treat from one of my hospital colleagues. All the Type A's were hung by the patient with care? :-)
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Hello
Well, while you are on holidays, Hospital not-Lean management is making big headlines here in France.
url
http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/mort-d-ilyes-a-l-hopital-le-flacon-n-etait-pas-a-sa-place-25-12-2008-353629.php
Short passage translation:
“According to a source, both bottles were extremely similarly looking, with same cap and same blue label even if label text, B46 for one and magnesium chloride for the other, were different.”
Here is a google translation from French to English:
LINK
Part of the translation:
“The nurse has admitted to mistakenly given the child an infusion of magnesium chloride instead of glucose intended to rehydrate. This misunderstanding might have caused a cardiac arrest of the child who had been hospitalized for angina.
The nurse, aged 35, was under investigation Friday for “involuntary homicide” and placed under judicial control. It was referred to in the afternoon at the public health division of the Paris court where the judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy has held against him “a simple negligence, recklessness or carelessness.” “
As I’ve written about before, I’m not a big fan of filing criminal charges against an individual for what’s most likely a process problem. What responsibility did hospital management and leadership have to make sure processes were error proofed so the wrong med can’t be given to the wrong patient?
We need to focus on prevention and learning, not punishment.