Medication Incidents Involving Heparin in Canada: 'Flushing' Out the Problem

摘要

Recently, there has been considerable media attention On, and public interest in, the medication incidents involving heparin that occurred in a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. These incidents follow high-profile incidents involving the newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberley, in 2007 and the deaths of 3 infants in Indiana the previous year; all had received inadvertent overdoses of heparin during the flushing of IV catheters. Canadian pharmacists, as well as nurses, physicians, health administrators, and the general public, may be wondering if similar problems are occurring in this country.