Fertility: A Novel by Denise Gelberg Read Free Book Online Page B

in the front of the third shelf of unit eighteen, and the heparin 10,000 supply was stored on the top shelf of unit nineteen. Each location was clearly marked with a label and a bar code. However, behind the heparin 10 shelf label and next to a nearly empty box of 10-unit vials sat a new box of blue-labeled vials containing 10,000 units of heparin. Alejandro, the new pharmacy tech, had restocked the shelves yesterday. Sarah would have to interview him, but it seemed likely he had mistakenly put the look-alike 10,000-unit vials on the shelf where the 10-unit vials were supposed to go.
    Cappelli took a long, hard look at the incorrectly placed box and excused himself to use the restroom.
    As Sarah stood alone next to the shelf with the offending heparin, she surprised herself with the degree of sympathy she had for the people whose slip-ups had led to the catastrophic overdose. The veteran pharmacist had failed to catch the pharmacy tech’s error when filling the rush order. He seemed to put less stock in the new BCMA system than in his decades of experience in the pharmacy. A nursing pro stretched thin, working with a sick, crying infant and her distraught parents, had failed to notice the discrepancy between the printed and handwritten heparin labels. Surely fatigue would have to be considered a factor in her error.
    Just as Sarah was thinking how human — and even predictable — these kinds of mistakes were, the bathroom door opened. Cappelli emerged wearing a look of defeat just as Joanne Marsh approached, seeming to take two steps at a time.
    “Joanne. It was me. I messed up. Look,” he said, pointing to the incorrectly placed box of heparin. “I grabbed the vial from the new box just like this,” he said as he picked out a vial from the 10,000-unit box, “saw the blue label and never double-checked the dose.”
    Marsh’s face and neck turned pink. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other and folded her arms in front of her. “But Albert, the BCMA wouldn’t allow you to fill the order with the wrong dose. You couldn’t have scanned it. It wouldn’t have scanned. That’s the whole point of the system.” She was almost pleading with him to tell her the system had worked.
    “Joanne, you’re right. It wouldn’t scan. I just thought it was a glitch in the system. How long have the 10-unit vials been on the third shelf of unit eighteen? You and I both know that they’ve been in the same place for years. I just grabbed it. When it wouldn’t scan I thought it was some kind of kink in the new system. And the label was blue. They’re both blue, they’re both blue,” he said, raising his hands in the air. “That’s why we always store the two doses on different shelving units.”
    “Who did the stocking of the shelves yesterday?” the head pharmacist asked.
    “The new fella, Alejandro,” Cappelli replied. As soon as Cappelli said the name, he knew Marsh would make quick work of him. “But he’s a good kid, Joanne,” Cappelli quickly added. “He ran the scripts up to the floor because I knew the doc wanted them stat. He did everything I asked of him yesterday — and he was nice about it, too. You know, no attitude like some of the young guys. He volunteered to restock the shelves without even being asked. He’s a hard worker. He’s gonna feel terrible when he finds out. He’s not devil-may-care about things, Joanne. He takes the job seriously.”
    Sarah could see Marsh’s impatience rising. “You’re being far too understanding, Albert. All the techs have had training in using the BCMA. He was instructed to scan every medication before placing it on the shelf. Had he done what he was trained to do, there would have been no way for him to mistake the 10,000-unit vials for the 10-unit vials.”
    “You’re right, but it’s not as though a computer system can’t have glitches. Name one system that doesn’t fail from time to time. We just started it up last week and we’re still working