There is a lot of “antidotal talk” about all the medication errors that happen in garden variety community pharmacy.. seemingly more talk about those errors in the chain store industry.
There was even a survey done by the Oregon BOP a couple of years ago http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2012/02/workloads_chain_stores_add_to.html
The RPH’s in that survey believed that working a chain pharmacy was three times more dangerous/unsafe.. than working in a independent pharmacy.
It is strongly suspected that corporate pharmacy settles a lot of medication errors with $$$ and non-disclosure agreements and everything is buried in the corporate archives.
What would happen if staff RPH’s made copies of medication error forms and redact the HIPPA information and send a copy anonymously to the state BOP and the pt’s doctor and even to local reporter(s).
I wonder how some of the RPH’s at NECC – that had their licenses revoked.. would be doing today… if they had said something.
Healthcare is one of the few industries that can hide/bury their mistakes… if a airliner falls out of the sky.. or even slides off a runway… it hits the national news
Just pay attention to how many different industries/businesses find themselves in the local/national news when something goes amiss…
Collectively we fill some 3-4 BILLION Rxs a year… even with a 0.001 % error rate.. that would be 3-4 MILLION medication errors a year.. not every one is going to be extremely serious or deadly.. but.. they are MISTAKES…
IF you are satisfied/happy with that many med errors on your license… do nothing.. you may be able to dodge that one very serious bullet .. MAYBE NOT !
Right now .. because of the NECC mess.. the BOP’s are on thin ice and higher scrutiny by the media… we did nothing during the RPH shortage to improve work environment safety… and many regret this now… this is another opportunity to make a difference… will you let it pass by and regret not doing something at some point in the future ?
Filed under: General Problems
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