Wrong patient's information on prescription

[frostyfrost]

OMG. This just did not just happened.

I am using this new system and I need to print prescriptions electronically.
I clicked on the wrong patient's profile and wrote a prescription under th
I gave it to the patient I intended to give it to.
That evening, I got a call from him saying that I printed out the wrong name and address on prescription. He returned the prescription to me and I wrote him a new one with the correct identifiers.

I am having a panic attack. What should I do?

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[rokshana]

OMG. This just did not just happened.

I am using this new system and I need to print prescriptions electronically.
I clicked on the wrong patient's profile and wrote a prescription under th
I gave it to the patient I intended to give it to.
That evening, I got a call from him saying that I printed out the wrong name and address on prescription. He returned the prescription to me and I wrote him a new one with the correct identifiers.

I am having a panic attack. What should I do?

make sure you cancel the Rx from the wrong pt and you may want to call the pharmacy and tell them since they will probably call the pt about it.

It happens more than you think...its easy to be in one pt's chart and then write something about your next pt and realize you didn't leave the previous chart.

 

[HomeSkool]

What should I do?

Stop panicking. These things aren't ideal, but they happen. There will be an incident report, which should look for system issues that allowed a mistake to occur rather than blaming an individual provider. There will be an M&M conference. And everything will be fine.

During my residency, an Acute Pain Service PA once took two epidural solutions to ORs for intraoperative infusion. She accidentally switched the bags, and the resident in one room started the infusion without checking that it was the right patient. No one was hurt, no one lost their license, no one had a permanent black mark put on their record.

This is not the end. Don't freak out. You're going to be fine.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

 

[frostyfrost]

Thanks for the support (Using a new account because normally I am very active on SDN and my identity can be easily exposed)

Is this considered a HIPPA violation?

 

[Smurfette]

If the patient gave you back the prescription, you should've torn it up and thrown it out before giving him the correct one. Sounds like the patient never even brought it to the pharmacy since pharmacists will usually keep prescriptions and wouldn't hand it back to someone with the wrong name. You should go back in the incorrect patient's chart and delete the med so it doesn't mislead others though. Nothing else to do.

re: HIPAA. No. Technically you did not give out patient health info. Name/address/birthday yes, but the prescription was the right med on the wrong patient, so the patient who got the prescription has no idea what, if any, medical problems or prescriptions the other patient has.

 

[FutureInternist]

Also only keep one patient chart open at a time.

My residency had their EMR set up that way after the wrong patient was given lovenox that caused bad stuff to happen.

 

[frostyfrost]

How should I disclose this to the patient whose name and address I accidentally exposed?

 

[frostyfrost]

Very true about the one window at a time. The way we are doing it. They would open new tabs on 2 separate internet explorers depending on the information being displayed. Yah, it's a mess.

 

[hamstergang]

How should I disclose this to the patient whose name and address I accidentally exposed?

There are systems in place at every hospital for dealing with this. You should report it to the appropriate person (some supervisor of yours?) and let them determine the right path. This isn't a scenario where you get to decide what to do.

 

[Crayola227]

the one window thing is total bull****, my program tried to do it, and quickly realized what a fail that was for the residents getting jack **** done

 

[Crayola227]

I'm also shocked you're coming to SDN with this

the first thing you should do with any sort of frak up like this, is go to your nearest supervisor

so the senior on your team, the attending of record, in my clinic it would have been my preceptor, or an assigned mentor, or even the Chief
hell, you could even call pharmacy and see what they say, they deal with frakked up scripts on the daily

it's early enough in the year frak ups like this still happen and people don't know what to do

going to these people with this issue is fine, if they knew you stopped by an internet forum first....

 

[AdmiralChz]

Call the pharmacy and cancel, and do what everyone else says above.

Or continue to freak out on SDN without actually correcting the mistake, your call.

 

[d2305]

What's worse is the wrong medication prescribed, and they take it. I saw a Rx on one of my patients prescribed depomedrol vs. depoprovera. Somehow she came to me for the injection, and I caught it.

 

[frostyfrost]

Of course I did all the things above except I am waiting for the patient whose information appeared on the prescription for a return visit next week. I need to tell him in person.

I'm just afraid that it would be grounds for dismissal

 

[FutureInternist]

the one window thing is total bull****, my program tried to do it, and quickly realized what a fail that was for the residents getting jack **** done

Until someone gets lovenox & a headbleed...then Admin (and docs) will hopefully change their stance

 

[PlutoBoy]

Of course I did all the things above except I am waiting for the patient whose information appeared on the prescription for a return visit next week. I need to tell him in person.

I'm just afraid that it would be grounds for dismissal

Bro... it's nothing. Forget about it. Like, literally. Don't even mention it ever again. It's nothing.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I'm going to second the advice above. Do not try to fix this yourself. Your institution should have a privacy office. They will deal with it, or tell you what to do. If all that was disclosed was an address, the answer might be nothing. You're not going to get fired over something like this. Hiding it and then it comes to light later? That's the kind of thing that can be a big problem.

 

[hamstergang]

Of course I did all the things above except I am waiting for the patient whose information appeared on the prescription for a return visit next week. I need to tell him in person.

Just in case you need to hear this multiple times, this is a terrible idea. The only way this causes big problems for you is if you don't follow the current hospital policy, which is almost surely not what you describe planning to do.

 

[Singlemom Rph]

make sure you cancel the Rx from the wrong pt and you may want to call the pharmacy and tell them since they will probably call the pt about it.

It happens more than you think...its easy to be in one pt's chart and then write something about your next pt and realize you didn't leave the previous chart.

 

[Donald Juan]

Of course I did all the things above except I am waiting for the patient whose information appeared on the prescription for a return visit next week. I need to tell him in person.

I'm just afraid that it would be grounds for dismissal

If it was a printed prescription I'm not even sure why you would have to tell them. You need to chill out. Just let one of your more senior residents know and take whatever action (if any) they think you need to.

 

[mvenus929]

I'm just afraid that it would be grounds for dismissal

Having been in the periphery of more dismissals than I care to be, I can tell you that unless you have multiple other marks on your record and have been having issues for several months, this will not lead to your dismissal. If you're an intern, it's even less likely (by and large, interns are considered 'fixable'). This was an accident, and people will see that. Fix the mistake and move on.

Now, if you had actively sought to give a patient the wrong prescription and there was harm because of it, then, yeah, maybe you'd have some concern for getting dismissed. If you had given the patient the records of over 100 people, sure. Putting the wrong name on a prescription is nothing.

 

[shoal007]

Just chill out. This happens frequently. Apologize and move on. Often it doesn't even go up the ladder as in this case the patient brought it back you fix it and it goes away.

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[frostyfrost]

Yah, they told me not to sweat it saying that it's a "minimal breach" if no medical information was released.
Phew haha