CME/CEU Quizzes
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January 2017
The Missing Abscess: Radiology Reads in the Digital Era
Following a hysterectomy, a woman was discharged but then readmitted for pelvic pain. The radiologist reported a large pelvic abscess on the repeat CT scan, and the gynecologist took the patient to the operating room for treatment based on the report alone, without viewing the images herself. In the OR, the gynecologist could not locate the abscess and stopped the surgery to look at the CT images. She realized that what the radiologist had read as an abscess was the patient's normal ovary.
December 2016
Suicidal Ideation in the Family Medicine Clinic
A young woman with a history of suicide attempts called her primary care physician's office in the morning saying that she had been cutting herself and had taken extra doses of medication. The receptionist scheduled the patient for an appointment late that afternoon. After the clinic visit, while awaiting transfer to the emergency department for evaluation and admission, the patient was left unattended and eloped before providers could evaluate her.
November 2016
Don't Dismiss the Dangerous: Obstetric Hemorrhage
After an emergency cesarean delivery, a woman had progressive tachycardia and persistent hypertension. A CT scan showed no evidence of pulmonary embolism, but repeat blood tests showed a dangerously low hemoglobin level and markedly elevated liver enzyme levels. She was taken back to the operating room and found to have postpartum hemorrhage.
October 2016
Unintended Consequences of CPOE
While attempting to order a CT scan with only oral contrast for a patient with poor kidney function, an intern ordering a CT for the first time selected "with contrast" from the list, not realizing that meant both oral and intravenous contrast. The patient developed contrast nephropathy.
September 2016
A Pill Organizing Plight
An elderly woman with multiple medical conditions experienced new onset dizziness and lightheadedness. A home visit revealed numerous problems with her medications, with discontinued medications remaining in her pillbox and a new prescription that was missing. In addition, on some days she was taking up to five blood pressure pills, when she was supposed to be taking only two.
July/August 2016
Cognitive Overload in the ICU
Admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to severe pancreatitis, an older woman had a central line placed. Despite maximal treatment, the patient experienced a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. The intensivist was also actively managing numerous other ICU patients and lacked time to consider why the patient's condition had worsened.
June 2016
The Case of Mistaken Intubation
An older man with multiple medical conditions was found hypoxic, hypotensive, and tachycardic. He was taken to the hospital. Providers there were unable to determine the patient's wishes for life-sustaining care, and, unaware that he had previously completed a DNR/DNI order, they placed him on a mechanical ventilator.
May 2016
Falling Through the Crack (in the Bedrails)
Multiple alarms went off in an ICU room after an intern and resident performed paracentesis on an older patient. Nurses found the patient confused and trying to get out of bed. She had pulled out her nasogastric and endotracheal tubes, her leg was stuck in the bedrails, and she had a large cut on her foot.
April 2016
Dropping to New Lows
While hospitalized, a man with diabetes had difficult-to-control blood sugars, with multiple episodes of both critical hypoglycemia and serious hyperglycemia. Because "holds" of the patient's insulin were not clearly documented in the electronic health record and blood sugar readings were not uploaded in real time, providers were unaware of how much insulin had actually been given.
February 2016
Robotic Surgery: Risks vs. Rewards
Despite mechanical problems with the robotic arms during a robotic-assisted prostatectomy, the surgeon continued using the technology and completed the operation. Following the procedure, the patient developed serious bleeding requiring multiple blood transfusions, several additional surgeries, and a prolonged hospital stay.
January 2016
A Room Without Orders
Admitted to the hospital for chemotherapy, a man with leukemia and diabetes arrived on the medical unit on a busy afternoon and waited until his room was ready. The nurse who checked him in assumed that his admitting orders were completed on the previous shift. That night, the patient took his own insulin from home without a meal and experienced a preventable episode of hypoglycemia.
December 2015
Harm From Alarm Fatigue
Following a non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, a man was admitted to the hospital and placed on a telemetry monitor. As the monitor was constantly sounding with "low voltage" and "asystole" alerts and the patient was well each time clinicians checked, they silenced the alarms. The patient was found dead 4 hours later.
October 2015
The Risks of Absent Interoperability: Medication-Induced Hemolysis in a Patient With a Known Allergy
After leaving Hospital X against medical advice, a man with paraplegia presented to the emergency department of Hospital Y with pain and fever. The patient was diagnosed with sepsis and admitted to Hospital Y for management. In the night, the nurse found the patient unresponsive and called a code blue. The patient was resuscitated and transferred to the ICU, where physicians determined that the arrest was due to acute rupturing of his red blood cells (hemolysis), presumably caused by a reaction to the antibiotic. Later that day, the patient's records arrived from three hospitals where he had been treated recently. One record noted that he had previously experienced a life-threatening allergic reaction to the antibiotic, which was new information for the providers at Hospital Y.
September 2015
Abdominal Pain in Early Pregnancy
After several days of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, a pregnant woman visited the emergency department and was swiftly discharged with antibiotics for a UTI. However, she returned the next day with unchanged abdominal pain and more nausea and vomiting. Apart from a focused ultrasound to document her pregnancy, no further testing was done. The patient again returned the following day with increased pain and now appeared more ill. An MRI revealed a ruptured appendix.
July/August 2015
Privacy or Safety?
A hospitalized patient with advanced dementia was to undergo a brain MRI as part of a diagnostic workup for altered mental status. Hospital policy dictated that signout documentation include only patients' initials rather than more identifiable information such as full name or birth date. In this case, the patient requiring the brain MRI had the same initials as another patient on the same unit with severe cognitive impairment from a traumatic brain injury. The cross-covering resident mixed up the two patients and placed the MRI order in the wrong chart. Because the order for a "brain MRI to evaluate worsening cognitive function" could apply to either patient, neither the bedside nurse nor radiologist noticed the error.
June 2015
Anchoring Bias With Critical Implications
After multiple visits to both his primary care provider and urgent care for chronic burning left foot pain attributed to peripheral neuropathy, a man presented to the emergency department with worsening symptoms. His left lower leg was dusky and extremely tender, with non-palpable pulses. CT angiography revealed complete blockage of the left superficial femoral artery due to atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease. The patient required emergent vascular bypass surgery on his left leg, and ultimately, an above-the-knee amputation.
May 2015
Errors in Sepsis Management
An older woman with a history of pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary artery disease was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. She received levofloxacin (administered approximately 3 hours after presentation). Twenty-four hours after admission, her blood cultures grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and vancomycin was added to her antibiotic regimen. The patient developed respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation as well as septic shock requiring vasopressors.
April 2015
Dissecting the Presentation
A woman admitted to the hospital with a presumed transient ischemic attack and possible gastrointestinal bleeding was found unconscious and in cardiac arrest on hospital day 2. Despite maximal resuscitation efforts, the patient died. Autopsy revealed that the cause of death was an acute aortic dissection.
March 2015
Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right (Kidney)
A man with suspected renal cell carcinoma seen on CT in the right kidney was transferred to another hospital for surgical management. The imaging was not sent with him, but hospital records, which incorrectly documented the tumor as being on the left side—were. The second hospital did not obtain repeat imaging, and the surgeon did not see the original CT prior to removing the wrong kidney.
January 2015
Monitoring Fetal Health
A woman who had an uncomplicated pregnancy and normal labor with no apparent signs of distress delivered a cyanotic, flaccid infant requiring extensive resuscitation. Although fetal heart rate tracings had shown signs of moderate-to-severe fetal distress for 90 minutes prior to delivery, clinicians did not notice the abnormalities on the remote centralized monitor, which displayed 16 windows, each for a different patient.
December 2014
A Stroke of Error
An elderly man admitted for a presumed hypertensive emergency and undiagnosed neurologic symptoms became unresponsive and was noted to have new right hand weakness 2 days into his hospitalization. After a "Code Stroke" was called, a neurologist evaluated him and administered tPA 100 minutes after the acute event. A few hours later, the patient developed further symptoms, and an emergent head CT demonstrated post-tPA intracerebral hemorrhage.
September 2014
A Lot of Pain (Medications)
Hospitalized for foot amputation, a man with COPD and chronic pain on long-acting morphine experienced post-operative pain and severe muscle spasms. After being given hydromorphone, morphine, and diazepam, the patient became minimally responsive and a code blue was called.
July/August 2014
Pitfalls in Diagnosing Necrotizing Fasciitis
Admitted with bruising from a fall and persistent pain on his left side, a patient was kept in the emergency department overnight due to crowding. After being reevaluated by the surgical service the next day, the patient was urgently taken to the operating room for probable necrotizing fasciitis and pyomysitis.
June 2014
Wandering Off the Floors: Safety and Security Risks of Patient Wandering
Hospitalized for alcohol withdrawal, an elderly man was feeling "cooped up" by hospital day 6 and left the floor without informing any providers. An hour later upon return to his room, he complained of new arm pain. While off hospital grounds, the patient had fallen and broken his arm.
May 2014
Medication Reconciliation With a Twist (or Dare We Say, a Patch?)
An elderly woman with a history of dementia underwent surgical resection of new colon cancer, which relieved a bowel obstruction. She developed acute delirium postoperatively, and the team discovered they had neglected to capture her cholinesterase inhibitor patch (a medication for dementia) in the official medication reconciliation list.
April 2014
A "Reflexive" Diagnosis in Primary Care
Despite new back pain and worsening symptoms of tingling, pain, and weakness bilaterally, in both hands and feet, a man recently diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy was not sent for further testing after repeated visits to a primary care clinic. By the time neurologists saw him, they diagnosed critical cervical cord compression, which placed the patient at risk for permanent paralysis.
March 2014
Tough Call: Addressing Errors From Previous Providers
Hospitalized 3 times within 2 months presumably for sepsis, a woman with diabetes on metformin presented to the emergency department with the same set of symptoms as her previous admissions. After reviewing her records, the admitting team determined that the patient's presentation for this and earlier admissions was more consistent with acute lactic acidosis secondary to metformin than sepsis.
February 2014
Multifactorial Medication Mishap
Despite multiple checks by physician, pharmacist, and nurse during the medication ordering, dispensing, and administration processes, a patient received a 10-fold overdose of an opioid medication and a code blue was called.