Dennis and Kimberly Quaid
"This violation involved multiple failures by the facility to adhere to established policies and procedures for safe medication use," the Department of Public Health writes in a 20-page report. "These violations caused, or were likely to cause, serious injury or death to the patients who received the wrong medication."
The hospital overmedicated a total of three children with the blood thinner heparin on Nov. 18. The hospital has said a "preventable error" occurred with the three patients and that a "series of changes" have since been made in training and procedures.
"The Department of Public Health's investigation and report of how the heparin error occurred is a confirmation of our own internal findings about the error, which we previously shared last November," Michael L. Langberg, chief medical officer for Cedars, said in a statement.
State regulators haven't decided whether to fine Cedars-Sinai for the lapses, Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the Center for Healthcare Quality, tells the Times, but she notes the hospital cooperated with the investigation.
