Showing posts with label IV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IV. Show all posts

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Criminalization of Medication Errors; Mistakes by Pharmacists


The following article appears at http://www.uspharmacist.com/content/c/16572/

Jesse C. Vivian, BS Pharm, JD
Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Wayne State University

Detroit, Michigan


11/19/2009

US Pharm. 2009;34(11):66-68.
Here is a sobering thought. A pharmacist makes a mistake. The error results in the death of a patient, and the pharmacist is charged with negligent homicide. He is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 5 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. Of course, his pharmacist license is revoked and chances are he will never work in the profession again. His crime? He did not check the accuracy of calculations used by a pharmacy technician under his charge to compound the concentration of sodium chloride in a prescription for a cancer chemotherapy solution.
Negligent? Yes. Accountability and responsibility? Yes and Yes. Malpractice? Yes. Loss of license? Yes. Guilty? Yes. But a crime? Prison term? For a mistake, albeit a mistake with a worst-case outcome? That is tough medicine to swallow. More important, how is justice served by putting this pharmacist in jail? The message to pharmacists and perhaps all other health care practitioners—watch out. There may be prosecutors out there just itching to put you away.

Facts of the Case


On February 24, 2006, while working at the Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, licensed pharmacist Eric Cropp received a prescription for a chemotherapy solution of Eposin (etoposide phosphate) that was supposed to be mixed in an IV bag of normal saline containing 0.9%