On December third of last month, Michael Cohen, the President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), Eric Cropp, and myself, had the opportunity to share Emily’s tragic story and the important lessons that have been learned from the medication error that took her life in 2006.

The day began with a wonderful keynote speech from former President Bill Clinton, titled “Embracing our Common Humanity”. During his speech President Clinton shared his philanthropic worldview and the very important humanitarian work that is being accomplished globally by the William J. Clinton Foundation. In my opinion, President Clinton’s speech was the perfect way to kick off the ASHP Midyear! As he was describing the inherent challenges of globalization, he really emphasized the growing interdependence, the people of the world now have on one another, as we all move forward into the future. He attributed this growing interdependence on the fact that much of the world’s population shares very similar goals and values. With that being said, as he spoke, I began drawing analogies to patient safety and quality of care in our nation’s medical facilities. The primary one being, just like many of the people of the world share the common goals and values President Clinton described in his speech, caregivers like physicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, etc., also share many similar core values and common goals relating to patient safety overall.

Later that day, we gave our presentation before more than 2,500 people, entitled “The Emily Jerry Story: Lessons Learned From a Fatal Medication Error”. The reason I feel our presentation received a standing ovation is simply due to the fact that most of the audience was comprised of pharmacists from around the United States, who all share very similar values and exactly the same common goals when it comes to medication and patient safety. Bottom line, I believe every member of the audience was helping me honor my beautiful daughter Emily’s short life, by truly trying to learn from what happened to her and by ultimately finding ways to prevent similar tragedies from occurring to others. With all of this being said, I would like to genuinely thank everyone who attended and let them all know how sincerely grateful I am for their continued support of The Emily Jerry Foundation, as well as, for me personally.

Below are some high-resolution scans of the official program from the event. Click on the images to view them larger and/or download the files.

Lisa and I had the chance to meet John J. Nance (keynote speaker for this event) last week at the premier of “Surfing The Healthcare Tsunami; Bring Your Best Board.” John is a great guy that is also featured in the documentary. We are very excited to take part in this opportunity to spread the message.

For more information about the event click here to visit the Washington Patient Safety Coalition website.

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…

I am very proud to say that The Emily Jerry Foundation has just established a strong partnership with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).  In fact, I was just asked by Michael Cohen, ISMP President, to be their keynote speaker at their upcoming Patient Safety Summit in Philadelphia on October 24th.  Eric Cropp will also be accompanying me and presenting at the summit as well.  Their website is www.ismp.org.

How a Fatal Medication Error Led to Patient Safety Advocacy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 12, 2011 – Bellevue, Wash. – Wolters Kluwer Health announced today that Pharmacy OneSource, software-as-a-service provider of Quantifi, a medication error documentation and reporting tool, is hosting a complimentary webinar with Christopher Jerry and Eric Cropp on “The Emily Jerry Story.”

Learn how the tragic story of two-year old Emily Jerry’s untimely death from a medication error in Ohio in 2006 has positively impacted the entire patient safety movement. Emily’s father Christopher Jerry turned tragedy into triumph through the establishment of The Emily Jerry Foundation and the passage of “Emily’s Law” in Ohio in 2009. Hear the compelling story of how Cropp, the pharmacist involved in Emily’s death, and Jerry have teamed up in Emily’s honor in an effort to make medical facilities safer for everyone, especially our children!

The Emily Jerry Story
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
TIME: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
WHERE: http://www.pharmacyonesource.com/webinars

Read the entire news release here.

Register for the Webinar at PharmacyOneSource.com/webinars.

I am excited to announce my participation in the upcoming patient safety lecture with Summa Healthcare on August 17th at Akron City Hospital’s Raymond C. Firestone Auditorium from 7:30 to 9:00am.  This lecture should be to a larger audience due to the fact it includes all of the caregivers from Summa Healthcare including physicians, interns, etc., in addition to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.  Special thanks to Maria Giannakos, PharmD, BCPS, MBA of Summa Health System in Akron who has organized all of this.

More details to come as they are available.

The webinar entitled: “A Hospital Accident: Lessons Learned – A Death, A Conviction, and A Healing” was hosted by Texas Medical Institute of Technology (TMIT). The webinar panelists included: Dr. Charles Denham of TMIT, Eric Cropp, Christopher Jerry, Sully Sullenberger – famous for landing his plane on the Hudson River and saving the lives of all his passengers and crew members, Frank Federico, and Matt Listiak.

To download a pdf of the slides from the TMIT High Performer Webinar click here.