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WebM&M: Case Studies

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.

Have you encountered medical errors or patient safety issues? Submit your case below to help the medical community and to prevent similar errors in the future.

This Month's WebM&Ms

Update Date: March 15, 2023
Joy Chaudhry, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP, Julie Chou BSN, RN, CNOR, Courtney Manning, PharmD, MBA, Minji Kim, RN, BSN, CNOR, and David Dakwa, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, BCSCP | March 15, 2023

This case focuses on immediate-use medication compounding in the operating room and how the process creates situations in which medication errors can occur. The commentary discusses strategies for safe perioperative compounding and the... Read More

Nisha Punatar, MD, Samson Lee, PharmD, BCACP, and Mithu Molla, MD, MBA | March 15, 2023

The cases described in this WebM&M reflect fragmented care with lapses in coordination and communication as well as failure to appropriately address medication discrepancies. These two cases involve duplicate therapy errors, which have the potential to cause... Read More

Have you encountered medical errors or patient safety issues?
Have you encountered medical errors or patient safety issues? Submit your case below to help the medical community and to prevent similar errors in the future.

All WebM&M: Case Studies (7)

Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 WebM&M Case Studies
Clinton J. Coil, MD, MPH, and Mallory D. Witt, MD| September 1, 2017
A woman developed sudden nausea and abdominal distension after undergoing inferior mesenteric artery stenting. The overnight intern forgot to follow up on her abdominal radiograph, which resulted in a critical delay in diagnosing acute mesenteric artery dissection and bowel infarction.
F. Daniel Duffy, MD; Christine K. Cassel, MD| October 1, 2007
Following surgery, a woman on a patient-controlled analgesia pump is found to be lethargic and incoherent, with a low respiratory rate. The nurse contacted the attending physician, who dismisses the patient's symptoms and chastises the nurse for the late call.
Lee Berkowitz, MD| January 1, 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.
Catherine McLean, MD| March 1, 2005
At a routine clinic visit, screening labs are sent for a man with HIV. Not notified of the results, he assumes they are normal. One month later, he develops a classic syphilitic rash.
Bradley A. Sharpe, MD| July 1, 2004
A woman hospitalized for CHF (with no history of diabetes) is given several rounds of insulin and D50, after repeated blood tests show her glucose to be dangerously high, then dangerously low. Turns out, the blood samples were drawn incorrectly and the signouts were incomplete.
Arpana Vidyarthi, MD| March 1, 2004
Due to a series of incomplete signouts, information about a patient's post-operative leg pain and chest discomfort is not conveyed to the primary team. A PE is discovered post-mortem.