Pharmacotherapeutic friendly fire in the intensive care unit: high stakes seeking high calibre

doi:10.1186/cc6858

Critical Care
Volume 12
Issue 2

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Commentary

Pharmacotherapeutic friendly fire in the intensive care unit: high stakes seeking high calibre

Christopher S Parshuram¹^,2^,3^,4^,5

¹Department of Critical Care Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8

²Center for Safety Research, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8

³Child Health and Evaluation Sciences Program, The Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8

⁴Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

⁵Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Critical Care 2008, 12:137doi:10.1186/cc6858


Published:	22 April 2008

See related review by Moyen et al., http://ccforum.com/content/12/2/208

Abstract

Increasing numbers of patients are surviving the intensive care unit. Concordant with our shifting focus to minimizing intensive care unit-acquired morbidity, in the present issue of Critical Care Moyen, Camire, and Stelfox describe the importance of quality pharmacotherapy. They describe challenges and potential solutions to this source of iatrogenic injury in our vulnerable patients. Their article reminds us not to understate the importance of medication error, to avoid overstating the benefits of incompletely proven methods to prevent medication error, and to distinguish harmful medication errors from other types of medication error.