COLUMBUS, Ohio,
Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ — SB 203, known as Emily’s Law, has received Governor
Ted Strickland’s signature today, making the law official in the state of
Ohio. Named after
Emily Jerry, Emily’s Law will provide strict requirements and regulations for pharmacy technicians. The law, which was originally sponsored by Senator
Tim Grendell, was drafted with assistance of the National Pharmacy Technician Association.
Emily’s Story
Emily Jerry died at the age of two as the result of a medication error caused by a pharmacy technician. On the day that Emily was to have her final chemo treatment and received an excellent prognosis from physicians, she was given a fatal dosage of chemotherapy. The pharmacy technician who prepared Emily’s chemotherapy had opted to compound her own normal saline base solution, as opposed to using a commercially manufactured (prepacked) IV solution bag.
Standard IV bags contain a base solution of 0.9% NaCL (sodium chloride); the base solution prepared for Emily contained approximately 20x the standard concentration of sodium chloride. Prior to entering a coma, Emily grabbed her head, screamed and cried as she experienced a fatal overdose of sodium chloride.
Although pharmacy technicians practice under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist, the public assumes that these individuals are still required to be properly trained and demonstrate competency to work within a pharmacy setting. While controversy still remains over the specific circumstances of what occurred that day in the pharmacy, the fact remains that a major medication error occurred, went uncaught and ultimately cost
Emily Jerry her life. In the aftermath, local and national media attention exposed the gross inadequacies of pharmacy technician standards and regulations in
Ohio (as well as across most of
the United States).
Read more at
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1619505/emilys_law_for_regulating_pharmacy_technicians_signed_by_ohio_governor/#vHzmjCVyuBslVQpZ.99
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