EJF in Partnership with Codonics Announces “Campaign for Safety” Through ‘Smart’ Implementation of Technology in Medicine During National Patient Safety Week

On March 1st 2006, my beautiful daughter, Emily, tragically died from a medication error during what was supposed to be her final round of chemotherapy. What makes Emily’s story even more heartbreaking is the simple fact that Emily had a very large yolk sack tumor in her abdomen that had completely disappeared after five short months of chemotherapy. The only reason she was receiving a final round of chemo was to make certain that there were no residual cancer cells remaining in her body that could cause her problems later in life.

After her tragic death, it was determined that the error that took Emily’s life was a direct result of an IV compounding mistake that had been made in the hospital pharmacy. Like most medical errors Emily’s death was really a direct result of “human error” that had occurred on the part of the pharmacy technician preparing Emily’s IV medication that day.

Shortly after establishing The Emily Jerry Foundation, I began focusing my advocacy efforts on trying to find solutions that would save lives through the “smart” implementation of technology to reduce this “human error” component that is all too prevalent in medicine. With that thought in mind I am very pleased to announce that one of our key patient safety technology partners, Codonics, with their Safe Label System, and The Emily Jerry Foundation are on a “Mission of Safety” during National Patient Safety Week this week. Please see our important press release located below.