Celia Tapia (DOB 05/18/1970) is experiencing pain in her left ear. She comes into the office
today and Dr. Martin diagnoses her with otitis media and prescribes Cephalexin 500mg IM.
The office has Cephalexin 250mg/5mL in the office. The Medical Assistant draws up an
injection of 5 mg and administers the injection IM (site of injection left deltoid). Ms. Tapia
had no adverse side effects and was discharged from the office. Later that afternoon, Dr.
Martin was dictating her office note and discovered the error — Ms. Tapia should have
received an injection of 10 mL (for full medication amount of 500mg). The Medical Assistant
contacted Ms. Tapia and explained the error. Ms. Tapia returned to the office and the
additional medication was administered.
Number the activities in the order they would be performed in the event of a medical error at
the physician’s office.
_5_____ Offer a sincere apology when talking to the patient
_____3_ Call the patient and ask him or her to come to the office
__7___ Give the patient the opportunity to ask questions
__1____ Tell the physician about the error
___2___ Complete an incident report and document the error in the chart
___8___ Document the discussion of the error with the patient
___4___ Meet with the patient in a private area where there will be no interruptions
___6___ Allow the Physician to explain the error to the patient
