My beautiful Emily would have been eight years old a few days ago on February 24th. Words cannot express how it feels, or how meaningful it is as Emily’s father, to be honoring my little girl by announcing our foundation’s new program, The Emily Jerry Pediatric Safe Patient Initiative and by giving this very important keynote speech at University Hospitals to begin National Patient Safety Week. The Emily Jerry Foundation has been working closely with University Hospitals over the past year, to find effective ways to collaborate in the area of patient safety, learning from Emily’s story, and trying to prevent similar errors from occurring again.
The following is the official poster University Hospitals will be posting internally. Click the image below to download a pdf with all the event details…
2012 is ramping up quite nicely for the Foundation. We have a major speaking engagement for The Delaware Valley Society of Health-System Pharmacists scheduled for February 21st in Conshohocken, PA. This event is titled “Intravenous Medication Compounding: Lessons Learned from a Fatal Error and Recommendations for Best Practices.”
The speakers include myself, Eric Cropp, and my good friend Michael Cohen, President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. We are hoping to continue to make a worthwhile impact with our story and this event promises to be another great opportunity to do just that.
To read all the details of the event click on the image below to download the pdf…
I am truly excited to travel to Huntsville, Alabama this March to take part in the 2012 Patient Safety Symposium. As I have found my calling in being a Patient Safety Advocate each presentation seems to become more and more important. I am honored and humbled to have been asked to attend. This will be a great event, hopefully I’ll see some of you there!
To read all the details about the event click on the image below…
An incredible article by a true patient safety advocate, Institute for Safe Medication Practices president Michael Cohen. I am incredibly thankful for the continued support he has shown our foundation and our mutual cause. Hopefully this article will touch and inspire those who it reaches.
Click on the image below to download a pdf of the actual newspaper clipping.
I received the following very nice note from Ken Hale at OSU’s Pharmacy department and wanted to share some of the awesome comments our engagement received from students…
Hi Chris.
One of our faculty members, Bonnie Spiers, collected reflections from our pharmacy students who attended your program at Ohio State on November 21st. I found their feedback to be very thoughtful and encouraging. I thought you might like to see a few specific comments:
“This lecture was beyond beneficial to my future career as a pharmacist. I will take the things I learned through this program and keep them in my mind for the rest of my life as a health care provider.”
“This talk was extremely moving. It changes how I view my future career as a pharmacist”
“This is one event that was especially touching, and I know I will carry it with me throughout my career. It opened my eyes to realizing each medication is for a person, and each person is loved.”
“This lecture was one of the most interesting, inspiring, and heartfelt events that I have ever experienced.”
“This event was extremely unique, and seeing the two of them together (Chris Jerry and Eric Cropp) advocating for safety and awareness was inspiring.”
“I loved this lecture! The College of Pharmacy should do this every year.”
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So, as you can see, it seems you achieved your goals in speaking with these future health professionals.
An awesome blog post by Dr. Tim Vanderveen of CareFusion. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim after the ISMP speech and it was a great experience. We hope to team up early next year on an exciting webcast. As always, I’ll keep you updated via our website. Now without further ado, here is Tim’s blog posting…
Monday, December 12, 2011
A tipping point for preventing IV compounding errors
Dr. Tim Vanderveen – Vice President, Center for Safety and Clinical Excellence, CareFusion
Last week, I attended the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Annual Meeting in New Orleans. While there, I attended the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) CHEERS awards dinner – an annual event to honor individuals, hospitals and companies who have made a difference in patient safety. The dinner event included a speaker, Christopher Jerry, who came to tell the story of his daughter, Emily, a victim of a fatal IV chemotherapy compounding error. Emily was receiving her last round of chemo when the pharmacy technician used 24% saline to compound Emily’s chemo dose instead of the 0.9% saline that was ordered. In an earlier blog, I discussed the second victim of a medication error – the clinician. Eric Cropp, the pharmacist who checked Emily’s chemo dose faced criminal charges and served a six-month jail sentence followed by six-months of house arrest. Partnering with ISMP, the CareFusion Center for Safety and Clinical Excellence hosted a recent webcast that discussed the error and Eric’s experience during his jail sentence.
Read More at CareFusion.com
