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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: September 27, 2023
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 (3)

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 Results
John Halamka, MD, MS| December 1, 2011
While entering an order via smartphone to discontinue anticoagulation on a patient, a resident received a text message from a friend and never completed the order. The patient continued to receive warfarin and had spontaneous bleeding into the pericardium that required emergency open heart surgery.
Jan Horsky, MA, MPhil; Vimla L. Patel, PhD, DSc| June 1, 2005
An AIDS patient prescribed a combination medicine, including a drug she was already taking, narrowly misses being overdosed.
Russ Cucina, MD, MS| April 1, 2005
Thinking that the patient's glycemic control had spontaneously improved (and not realizing that the patient was continuing to receive long-acting insulin injections), a physician discontinues daily glucose checks and insulin sliding scale orders. Four days later, the patient is found unresponsive and hypoglycemic.