Evoke Development

When the pregnant woman (name intentionally omitted) arrived at her pharmacy to pick up her prescription for an antibiotic, the pharmacist gave her a prescription belonging to another patient with the same last name and a similar first name. She took the medicine under the assumption that the prescription was correct. Instead of taking the antibiotics she was prescribed, she actually took was Methotrexate, a cancer drug that is also used to medically terminate pregnancies. 

Unfortunately, neither the pharmacist nor the patient verified the name on the prescription matched. This simple, quick check by both individuals would have only taken a few seconds. Yet, not doing so may result in terrible consequences.

Too often many of us don’t thoroughly review information we receive from a “trusted source;” we just automatically assume that everything is right. And, although in most cases, individuals are trustworthy and have no ill-intentions, we would all be better off having the mindset of “prove to me that this is right” rather than just assuming that it is. Regardless of the processes and systems organizations put in place to avoid errors, when people are involved, mistakes happen.  

Although most of us don’t work with data in such a way that one simple error makes the difference between “life or death,” a direct cost can almost always be linked to the errors we make. And, depending on the type of information in which an error occurs, it may also have a negative emotional or physical impact on an individual.

If you want to reduce the number of errors you or your team make, contact us to learn more.

To see the full article follow this link: Pharmacy Mistakenly Gives Pregnant Woman Abortion Pill