Overdose at Cedars-Sinai

Re “Hospital drug errors far from uncommon,” Nov. 22

As a registered nurse with more than 35 years of experience, I was appalled to learn of the heparin overdose incident that occurred at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It’s been a long-held practice that two nurses double-check certain drugs, and one such drug is heparin. This is a basic nursing skill and shouldn’t be an unfamiliar practice.

I also found the tone and coverage about this medication error soft compared with the incident reported by The Times several years ago at the now-defunct King-Drew Medical Center. The coverage of that lapse pilloried the hospital for its failure to safeguard its patients from medication errors; but when an equally dangerous medication error occurs at Cedars, we are fed the line that drug errors are far from uncommon. Shame on The Times for such biased coverage.

Genevieve Clavreul

Pasadena