Posted byEric was released from jail (a six month sentence for a medical error) on February 15.
Here’s the CNN video…
What do you think? Will Eric Cropp’s jail time make patients safer?
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Medical/Healthcare, Video
6 Comments »
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Here are previous posts about this accident:
http://www.taproot.com/wordpress/2009/08/20/pharmacist-gets-six-months-in-jail-for-fatal-prescription-error/
http://www.taproot.com/wordpress/2009/11/29/interesting-blog-post-about-eric-cropps-mistake-and-criminal-punishment/
http://www.taproot.com/wordpress/2009/12/14/monday-accident-lessons-learned-interesting-blog-post-about-the-eric-cropps-prison-time-for-a-medical-mistake/
Comment by Mark Paradies — February 18, 2010 @ 10:07 am
The death of the child is certainly a tragedy, but I agree that jail does NOTHING to prevent future deaths. Making an example of someone undoubtedly feels good, but will lead to others covering up and hiding problems – I agree with the patient safety experts on that.
Who holds management accountable for the understaffing and overwork that contributed to the error??
Comment by Mark Graban — February 26, 2010 @ 6:43 am
Except for segragating sex offenders and murderers from their targest, punishment rarely prevents future recurrence. For the most part, fear of punishment closes the doors to real investigations in the future. Thus the imprisonment of the pharmacist or the driver will not preclude future occurences and may indeed create more instances because true causes will not be discovered and corrected.
Has speeding tickets stopped everyone from speeding on our highways? Even death hasn’t stopped speeders from speeding so obviously we have not found the correct prevention. We have been using a hammer to fix everything that is broken.
Comment by Deborah Stephenson — March 16, 2010 @ 10:11 am
I agree with the safety expert interviewed – this tragedy should have been looked at as a systems issue. I also agree with Deborah that it will likely cause people not to speak up about errors and issues that might otherwise be corrected.
Comment by Janis Price — March 16, 2010 @ 10:36 am
Eric Cropp is an innocent man. He should not be in jail due to a pharmacy technician error. This event occured due to the systems failure not the pharmacist nor the nurse. The medical professions working so hard because lack of people working in the hospitals or other reasons. A pharmacist have to answer the phone calls, data on the computer, and etc. The judge is so wrong to put Eric to jailed. This incidence will not make a difference but only could make it worst. We’re human and mistakes does happens everyday. We’re not perfect either and that’s why we’re human. People join the medical fields because they want to help others people But whenever there is something bad happen then they got blame for. Remember this: medical professionals saving many lives everyday and without them then mortality is beyond our expectation. Eric Cropp should be free. Gosh, I do wish there is more I could do for him. I am a citizen and does support Eric and Michael. It’s the system failure not Eric.
Comment by Sarah — March 16, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
Cases like this one and others, whether we talk about the medical world, aviation, or any other safety related world, show once more how incomplete the prosecutorial system is. The law book is the only leading book for prosecutors, while another view (human factors) shows that the hospital might (or should) have been in court for understaffing leading to this accidental death. That is: IF organisations or persons must be prosecuted. This decision is the first one to be made, and it must be made by our elected Members of Parliament and/or Congress.
Eric Cropp ought not to be prosecuted.
The more cases I see, the more it looks like the world of prosecution is not even interested in the human factors of accidents and incidents.
If they decide to prosecute, they should look at the whole story, not a part of it that is of interest to the prosecutors.
Cases like these only know losers: the parents lose their daughter (probably the pride of their life) and want revenge. Eric Cropp lost and I think: what didn’t he lose: his job, his future, …
The technician (distracted from the work for private matters) could maybe even should) also have appeared in court. Not to be jailed, but to give an honest statement how this could happen.
Judges should realize that they ruin lives of people, who try to do their work. But alas, they also work in a legal system with law books.
Comment by Hans Houtman — March 19, 2010 @ 9:06 am