An error made by a nurse at Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood briefly put the local hospital under “immediate jeopardy” from state inspectors, writes Sarah Gantz for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

On August 11, a nurse at Lankenau gave a patient a double dose of a powerful opioid painkiller hydromorphone. The patient was found unresponsive and had to be given the overdose-reversing drug naloxone to revive them.

After an investigation, the inspectors concluded that the nurse did not follow the hospital’s protocol for using drugs that are potentially dangerous and verifying medication information prior to administering it to patients.

The hospital was subsequently categorized as being in “immediate jeopardy” by the state, which is a serious warning that indicates it has safety problems that could endanger patients’ lives. The label was removed the following day, after Lankenau retrained its nursing staff on medication protocol as well as committed to a month of quality checks.

“We take the situation very seriously and have implemented immediate and ongoing steps to correct any deficiencies identified by the state,” said Larry Hanover, a spokesperson for Main Line Health, the hospital’s owner.

Read more about Lankenau Medical Center and its safety protocols in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on MONTCO Today in October 2023.