Medication Error Cover-up

On Wednesday, September 24, 2008, one of the Corpus Christi local television stations reported a news item of significant community interest. The Christus Spohn Shoreline Hospital, a part of the giant not-for-profit Christus Health System, was the site of a major medication error event: Eleven patients had been given doses of a cardiac medication by mistake instead of an innocuous drug ordered for some digestive disorder. There were two reports--on the 6:00 pm news and again on the 10:00 pm news. The report stated that the error had been confirmed, but the hospital officials had no comment other than to say they were looking into the occurrence. 

There has been absolutely no comment by any other news media and no comment or explanation by the Christus Spohn Hospital officials since. Isn't the public entitled to know: What were the drugs that were administered in error? What adverse effects could these drugs have produced? Was there any morbidity as a result of this error? What measures have been taken to assure that similar errors do not happen again?

The focus of concern by the hospital industry and the Joint Commission for the months and years ahead stresses the need for transparency and for patient safety . Can either goal be achieved with cover-up like we're seeing here with this occurrence?

A few weeks ago a medication error occurred in the same hospital system that received nationwide publicity--wrong dose of Heparin given to several newborn infants. It is understandable that the hospital would not want another life-threatening error to receive similar notoriety.

But the mystery still stands. How did the hospital manage to pull off the cover-up? And how often does cover-up occur?