Step Carefully A hospitalized infant is among the most vulnerable of patients.   This page is dedicated to research, work, and education that brings babies home safe. Scroll down to view Today's News Alerts followed by articles and links pertinent to pediatric healthcare safety issues. Make sure to view the bottom of the page as well.  Here you will find the names of infants who have been injured or died as a result of medical errors. When available, you can click on the child's name to link to their web page and/or story.   Babies are the beginning of life. This is the beginning of safer care for babies in our hospitals.   Did your baby have a safe arrival home after a hospitalization? Do you know an infant who was harmed or died as a result of medical errors? Please share your stories - the happy endings and the untimely losses. Both are needed so as encouragement to move forward and motivation to learn & utilize best practices.   Please send an email with your name and contact information as well as the infants name and brief history to Remembering the Babies.   Send any suggestions for articles, links or news to:  Email Ideas and Suggestions here.   Check back often, there's alot of news to share.   Today's News and Alerts for Pediatric Healthcare:   April 14, 2008 - Free Pediatric Patient Safety Audio Conference – May 7, 2008 This free one hour telephone conference call will take place on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 9 a.m. P.T. /10 a.m. M.T. /11 a.m. C.T. / Noon E.T. To register, please click on the link below or copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser. This is open to th epublic but geared to medical professionals. View details and register for Pediatric Safety Audio Conference The recent Sentinel Event Alert urges greater attention to precautions such as medication standardization, improved medication identification and communication techniques, as well as the use of kilograms as the standard weight measurement to calculate proper dosages.  Joint Commission Resources has the following tools and services to help educate your organization on this very important topic.A variety of issues increase the likelihood of a pediatric medical error. From special medication dosing needs, to the pediatric patient’s ability to communicate effectively or rely on caregivers to describe their perception of the child’s symptoms. Join Joint Commission Resources for a free audio conference exploring these and the multitude of other issues that impact pediatric patient safety. April 11, 2008 - Just Released: New Sentinel Event from The Joint Commission: Medication Errors in Pediatrics http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_39.htm     The March of Dimes promotes universal screenings.   1 in 15 children will suffer a medication error while hospitalized! Journal of Pediatrics, April, 2008 CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses and bad drug reactions harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalized children, according to the first scientific test of a new detection method. That number is far higher than earlier estimates and bolsters concerns already heightened by well publicized cases such as the accidental drug overdose of actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins last November. "These data and the Dennis Quaid episode are telling us that ... these kinds of errors and experiencing harm as a result of your health care is much more common than people believe. It's very concerning," said Dr. Charles Homer of the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality. His group helped develop the detection tool used in the study. Researchers found a rate of 11 drug-related harmful events for every 100 hospitalized children. That compares with an earlier estimate of two per 100 hospitalized children, based on traditional detection methods. The rate reflects the fact that some children experienced more than one drug treatment mistake. The new estimate translates to 7.3 percent of hospitalized children, or about 540,000 kids each year, a calculation based on government data. Simply relying on hospital staffers to report such problems had found less than 4 percent of the problems detected in the new study. Read the full article

Talk About It Those that work with infants and children - not just in medicine - are gentle, compassionate people. There are present in the child's life to "do no harm." When the great misfortune of harm occurs these pediatric specialists are saddened, remorseful, and very sorry for any harm they may have caused. The injured child remains steadfast their trusting patient. There is a unique bond between a child and his or her physician. Sick children are aware of their surroundings. They know what is present in mind, body, spirit, and environment. They need to be heard. If you are a patient, family member or provider involved in the successful care  OR  preventable medical error of a child, you may submit your story here. PULSE of PA is dedicated to preventing medical errors in infants and children. When  they do occur, PULSE of PA is present to promote emotional and physical healing of patient, family and provider. Each is impacted when a child is injured or died. Each needs to share their trauma. By sharing yours, you may heal a little bit too. If your choose to give permission for your story to be shared in our community-based healthcare safety workshops or on the website, know that you are actively promoting the prevention of a similiar error while healing someone else who is hurting due to a medically induced trauma. Please include contact name and phone number for confirmation of any information submitted. If you submit without a verifiable address, your information will be stored but we will not be able to include it in any data or stories. Even in submitting contact information, all transmissions are confidential unless express written permission is provided. In any event, thank you for visiting. If you need assistance, please visit our Loss Support page as well. Take gentle care of you.    Learning and Remembering: Stories of Success and Tragedy Coming Soon!