Two recent interesting settlements at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both involving technology

Two recent interesting settlements at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both involving technology.<br /><br />The first case involved a medication error (from a 'miscommunication between doctors and nurses', an infusion pump snafu, and failure to perform obvious follow up labs;  if health IT was involved it would not surprise me).  The second case involved alarm fatigue.<br /><br />These amounts are interesting considering the age and condition of the patients.<br /><br /><br />1.  <a href="http://www.lubinandmeyer.com/cases/medication-error.html">http://www.lubinandmeyer.com/cases/medication-error.html</a><br /><b><br /></b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Medication Error Lawsuit against MGH Settles for $1.25 Million</b><br /><br />The plaintiff’s decedent was a 76-year-old woman who died on 11/24/10 from a hemorrhage. Her death occurred following a preventable medication error involving the drug Lepirudin. The patient was given over 30 times too much medication which resulted in uncontrollable internal bleeding and her subsequent death.<br /><br />Her past medical history included cirrhosis with well preserved hepatocellular synthetic function. She also had Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, and a history of splenectomy for treatment of severe thrombocytopenia.</blockquote><br /><br />and<br /><br /><br />2.  <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/mass_general_hospital_alarm_fa.html" target="_blank">http://www.masslive.com/news/<wbr></wbr>index.ssf/2011/11/mass_<wbr></wbr>general_hospital_alarm_fa.html</a><br /><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Mass. General Hospital 'alarm fatigue' lawsuit settled for $850,000</b><br /><br />BOSTON (AP) — The family of an 89-year-old man who died at Massachusetts General Hospital when nurses did not respond to alarms on his cardiac monitor has settled its case against the hospital for $850,000.</blockquote><br />I see potential lessons for at least two healthcare stakeholders in these cases: <br /><br />Hospital executives:  <b>bad technology is not your friend.</b>  get it right before rolling it out, with robust, validated safeguards, to save lives - and to save your organizations from costly litigation and reputational damage.<br /><br />Clinicians:  <b>bad technology is your enemy.  </b>While hyper-vigilance is mentally exhausting, that's what's required to avoid the fate of the patients - and the clinicians - in the above cases.<br /><br />Reporting bad technology and making sure the problems are remediated promptly, not glossed over, is equally essential.<br /><br />Note: my interpretation is that both technology and people issues probably played a role in both these accidents, based on my own knowledge and experience, but that is of course a personal opinion.  <br /><br />-- SS

Two recent interesting settlements at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both involving technology

Two recent interesting settlements at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both involving technology.The first case involved a medication error (from a 'miscommunication between doctors and nurses',…

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