Eric Cropp

I am a bit perplexed by the lack of outrage and action on the jailing of Eric Cropp for a system error.  Perhaps some do not think this is the case to speak out on due to some grey areas.

Please allow me to paraphrase a famous quote from Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came   With respect for Pastor Niemöller:

THEY CAME FIRST for an incompetent pharmacist, and I didn't speak up because I am not incompetent.

THEN THEY CAME for a pharmacist for making errors, and I didn't speak up because I do not make errors.

THEN THEY CAME for an unremorseful pharmacist, and I didn't speak up because I am remorseful.

THEN THEY CAME for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Warning:  This post is not about informatics.  It is about the greatest injustice in hospital pharmacy history and the organization that represents that profession. The case involves the jailing of a pharmacist for a system error.   Numerous facts and details of this injustice can be found in the links below and in some of my other writings.

First, here is my perspective.  I have been a hospital pharmacist in one capacity or another for 30 years that has made and presided over, as a manager, many medication errors.  Some that have caused horrible harm and suffering.  I am active and have been elected to leadership positions in many professional organizations including the one I will criticize here, the American Association of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP).

The stellar, admirable and heartfelt response to this case by Michael Cohen and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is an example of a commitment to a principle, regardless of how it looks or the consequences (links below). 

ASHP calls itself a membership organization.  It seems to me they should support their constituency in the dark hours of injustice.  A membership organization should rise up and defend their constituency against injustices, the way Nursing organizations have done recently.

ISMP’s and Nursing member organization responses to injustice is strikingly different than the repulsive ‘head in the sand’ approach by ASHP.