A Corpus Christi, TX, hospital said that a mixing error that led to a blood thinner overdose in as many as 17 infants was caused by its pharmacy. Two of the babies have died. The error was unrelated to product labeling or packaging of pediatric heparin, according to a statement by the chief medical officer of Christus Spohn Health System. The mixing error is believed to have occurred July 3, and that heparin batch was first administered in the neonatal intensive care unit July 4.
Bullying doctors can make nurses afraid to question their performance and result in medical errors, according to a safety alert issued by The Joint Commission. Outbursts and condescending language also threaten patient safety and increase the cost of care, according to the alert. Hospitals will be required by 2009 to have codes of conduct and processes for dealing with inappropriate behavior by staff, and hospitals without such systems risk losing their accreditation, said Joint Commission representatives.
Corpus Christi, TX-based Christus Spohn Hospital South is investigating how up to 17 babies in a neonatal intensive care unit received overdoses of the blood thinner heparin. One of the babies died, and nursing staff at the hospital discovered the problem two days after the medication is believed to have been first administered. Heparin came into the public spotlight in 2007 when newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid nearly died after receiving an overdose at a Los Angeles hospital.
A grant from Lake County, OH, will let Lake Hospital System offer mental health services in the emergency departments at Lake East and Lake West hospitals. The $630,000 grant intends to shorten or eliminate the need to hospitalize people who are experiencing a psychiatric crisis.
The Loudoun County, VA, Board of Supervisors has asked the operators of two clinics for low-income patients to consider collaborating more closely and perhaps merging in the hopes of improving healthcare for the county's poorest residents. The Loudoun Community Health Center and the Loudoun Free Clinic provide medical services to hundreds of uninsured and underinsured county residents each year. Representatives of the two clinics say that although they are open to the possibility of merging, it could have a host of unintended consequences that could weaken their ability to serve a growing need.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has developed more than 80 electronic greetings to spread health information. More than 30,000 "Health-e-Cards" have been sent since the agency started posting them on its Web site in February 2007. The cards take research-based health information that the CDC has used in more traditional ways and put it into links inside cards for people to send to friends, family and co-workers. About one-third of the E-cards' recipients have clicked through the card into the agency's Web site for more information, CDC officials said.