In a hospital pharmacy, mistakes happen all the time. All day long, but as long as you catch them and get them corrected, then everything is cool. Last night really bothered me.
I walk over to check an IV. My first look at it, it seemed ok so I signed my initials on it, but then took a closer look and realized it actually an extra ml in it, which meant it had 450mg in it instead of 300mg which is what it was supposed to be.
I handed it to the tech, said "this is wrong. its supposed to be 2ml total. Please remake it" and then I went over to check other things on the other side of the room. When I swung back around and asked for the new bag to check, she looks at me like a deer in the headlights. There was no new bag, so I was like "well, where's the old bag?" and she's like I think the other pharmacist tubed it to the ED and I am like "WHAT?!".
He had gotten a call from the ED and they were asking for it, so he walked over to the IV table, saw my initials on it and tubed it. He did nothing wrong. The tech didn't say a word about it being wrong, or that she was asked to remake it. So he had no idea of it being wrong. And all of this happened with-in minutes.
Patient got the wrong dose and I was very upset about it. Its disheartening and enlightening that even when you catch mistakes, things can still go wrong. Next time I find something wrong, I am ripping that label off immediately.
And luckily the patient was ok by the way, but still, this could have been fatal if it was a different kind of med.
TL:DR I learned to be more careful at work