According to a report, 17 infants at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System (Corpus Christi, Texas) received overdoses of the blood thinner heparin last week. As of this morning, one of the babies has died; another is in critical and unstable condition.
“Incidents like this are the reason why computerized systems for ordering medication in hospitals has been The Leapfrog Group’s number one safety measure that it urges all hospitals to take,” said Leah Binder, CEO, The Leapfrog Group (Washington). “Studies suggest that computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems reduce medication errors by 50-100 percent.”
According to a Leapfrog Group (Washington, D.C.) survey, only 10.4% of hospitals reported having a CPOE system in place. For more information on which hospitals have CPOE, visit the Leapfrog Web site.
