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Hurricane Preparedness

Alert – Members in New Mexico

Click here to read Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company’s 2021 Annual Report.

While health care professionals do not commonly face criminal charges for cases of negligence, the following cases show the possibility exists. For example, a nurse in Tennessee was recently convicted of gross neglect of an impaired adult and negligent homicide as a result of a medication error.  The nurse intended to withdraw Versed® from a medication cabinet on the floor, but retrieved vecuronium instead.  Criminal charges were filed after the patient died.  This case is similar to the case of the pharmacist in Ohio in 2006.  In that case, an 18 month old patient mistakenly received her chemotherapy treatment in a bag of concentrated sodium chloride instead of normal saline.  After the patient’s death, the pharmacist faced criminal charges, was convicted, and served more than a year in prison.