WebM&M Cases & Commentaries
WebM&M (Morbidity & Mortality Rounds on the Web) features expert analysis of medical errors reported anonymously by our readers. Spotlight Cases include interactive learning modules available for CME. Commentaries are written by patient safety experts and published monthly. Contribute by Submitting a Case anonymously.
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Approach to Improving Safety
Safety Target
The Case for Patient Flow Management
Eugene Litvak, PhD, and Sarah A. Bernheim; November 2011
Following hospitalization for suicidality, a woman was discharged to the care of her outpatient psychiatrist, a senior resident who was about to graduate. At her last visit in June before the year-end transfer, the patient was unable to schedule a follow-up visit because the new residents' schedules were not yet in the system. The delay in care had deadly consequences.
Production Pressures
Pascale Carayon, PhD; May 2007
On the day of a patient's scheduled electroconvulsive therapy, the clinic anesthesiologist called in sick. Unprepared for such an absence, the staff asked the very busy OR anesthesiologist to fill in on the case. Because the wrong drug was administered, the patient did not wake up as quickly as expected.
Workaround Error
Tess Pape, PhD, RN, CNOR; February 2006
Bypassing the safeguards of an automated dispensing machine in a skilled nursing facility, a nurse administers medications from a portable medication cart. A non-diabetic patient receives insulin by mistake, which requires his admission to intensive care and delays his chemotherapy for cancer.
An Outpatient 'Zebra'
Lee Berkowitz, MD; January 2006
Over several weeks, a man with left foot pain and numbness is evaluated by numerous doctors, each resident and attending pair offering a different incorrect diagnosis until the patient's fourth visit.