Authors:
Harold Thimbleby
Almost a century ago, the April 9, 1929, issue of the International Herald Tribune reported the death of three young brothers. All of them had been given a dose of thallium acetate 10 times what was intended, because of a decimal-point error. Decimal-point errors occur regularly. For instance, on October 7, 1998, The Newu York Times reported the death of a 10-month-old from a decimal-point error. In May 2001, the Canadian Institute of Safe Medication Practice (ISMP) reported two deaths caused by decimal-point errors: In two separate cases, .5 mg of morphine was misread as 5 mg. The ISMP…
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