Hospital admits prescription gaffe
A male patient transferred to Sha Tin Hospital was given unnecessary medicine for a week because hospital staff mistakenly attached another patient's prescription record that a doctor failed to note.
The hospital admitted the blunder yesterday in a written release after a media report.
The patient was transferred from Prince of Wales Hospital on May 14. A doctor prescribed the same drug as stated in the Prince of Wales Hospital record without noticing that another patient's medical record had been attached.
The incident only came to light when another doctor looked through the patient's medical record and immediately stopped prescribing the unnecessary drug.
The patient was also given an explanation.
In the written release, the hospital said an examination found the patient had not suffered any side effects and was healthy when discharged last Friday.
The hospital said no other patients were involved.
The incident was reported to the Hospital Authority through the Advanced Incident Reporting System.
The release also stated the two hospitals had given warnings to the staff involved, and all frontline medical staff had been reminded to strictly follow the guidelines for patients' prescriptions.
