Faulty Philly Lab cited

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LUVMyBirman

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Thought I would strat a new thread for this one.....

Faulty Philly Lab Procedures Cited

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
.c The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A hospital laboratory used the wrong form of a chemical in conducting a routine test, leading hundreds of patients to receive incorrect doses of a blood-thinning medication and possibly causing five deaths, the state health department said Wednesday.

Officials at St. Agnes Medical Center have said 932 patients may have received incorrect doses of the anticoagulant warfarin, better known by the brand name Coumadin, between June 4 and July 25.

Warfarin is prescribed for patients with artificial heart valves, abnormal heart rhythms and other conditions that increase the risk of blood clots that could lead to a heart attack or a stroke. But too high a dosage can be dangerous.

The health department said the lab error involved the test that is typically used to monitor patients using warfarin.

``People got wrong results and medication was adjusted based on these incorrect results. They were given a higher dosage,'' said Dr. Bruce Kleger, director of the Bureau of Laboratories for the state health department.

Hospital officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

The Philadelphia medical examiner's office has been investigating the deaths of five people the hospital said may have died as a result of the errors. It was expected to release its findings later Wednesday.

St. Agnes voluntarily stopped doing the test analysis soon after the errors were discovered and has been sending the work to another lab.

The health department investigation centered on the main chemical used in the prothrombin test, fibrinogen, which is added to blood in a machine and causes it to clot.

The hospital ordered what it thought was a more sensitive version of fibrinogen, but instead received a less sensitive version, according to Kleger. The lab did not discover the error and then used the wrong formula to calculate the clotting of patients' blood, he said.

The health department investigation found errors in the way the hospital ordered fibrinogen and also faulted the lab's quality assurance program since it failed to detect the mistake.

The health department also contacted U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials about concerns over the way fibrinogen is labeled.

The department said it will conduct unannounced checks of St. Agnes' lab procedures over the next year to make sure the hospital is in compliance.

The laboratory has 10 days to fix the problems or risk losing authorization to perform clinical diagnostic testing.

AP-NY-08-15-01 1253EDT
 
Faulty Philly Lab

Faulty Philly Lab

Gina,The scenario as reported by AP is what was predicted by our chief lab tech. However the faulty ingredient was probably not fibrinogen but more likely thromboplastin.To calculate INR one must know sensitivity of the thromboplastin compared to the standard.

INR = (Patient clotting time in ") isi
--------------------------
(Control clotting time in ")
isi = international sensitivity index
it is the sensitivity of the thromboplastin
and is is an exponent in the formula thus magnifying any error
 
I have always made it a practice to check anything given to me while in a hospital, at least while I am in an alert state. I certainly would have questioned any large increase in my dosage. I think I better inform my wife about the medications I am taking so she could do the cehecking when I am not alert. I have been on Coumadin for 13 years and never had a large change in my dosage.

It certainly is scary to find such a mistake being made in a hospital, although we have known about mistakes in the past, but coumadin hits close to home.
 
Since this mistake was across the board, and since someone in the hospital has to alter dosages, why wasn't it noticed that ALL (or nearly all) the dosages were being increased? Where is the thinking? where is the attention? Where is the common sense? Or do we run on robot?
 
No, we run on lack of knowledge. That is the very scary truth. Happened to me, differance is.....I was young and survied. They told me I had the flu in reality I had an INR of 14, yes 14!
 
14!!! You are lucky- - and now- - wise. Why is so much medicine conjecture based? Whatever happened to evidence-based medicine? Seems that your INR would be an obvious place to look. Seems like I'm lumped a lot with the "75%" probability irrespective of the medicines I take, when in fact it's the lack of consideration of the medicine that cause the problem. Example: my ventricular arrhythmias (very dangerous) were blown off as "nothing" without even a heart monitor, when in fact was due to the proarrhythmic effect of my high dose antiarrhythmics. I'm smarter now. Real smart. That's why I like my handy dandy ProTime monitor for the Coumadin. I'm off antiarrhythmics forever- - lone atrial fib is pretty benign anyway.
Best regards.
 
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