The VA is copying the aviation industry, where pilots can report near-misses without fear of penalty so the information can be used to make their next flight safer. Other hospitals, from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, are inching toward similar programs. But a doctor who says she once was fired because she complained about colleagues' life-threatening mistakes is skeptical. There's a conspiracy of silence in medical institutions. Starting Safety Steps Check into the VA-Eastern Kansas Medical Center and a nurse straps on a plastic wrist bracelet bearing a bar code.
Nurses push medication carts bearing little computers into each patient's room.
Zap Joe Smith's bar code, and up flashes the medicines he needs that hour. Pull a drug from the cart and zap its own bar code. If the nurse picked up the wrong pills, or chose a 20-milligram pill when he was supposed to get just 2, the computer beeps an alarm. It won't let them administer Tim Brown's medicines to Joe Smith. Plus, doctors can check Smith's recorded vital signs for side effects and whether his medicines are working by logging onto the computer system.