Author: Renu Roy

Returning from a Saturday morning outing to her favorite bakery with my husband, my daughter said, "Mom, I think there's nuts in this." She placed a square on the counter (with one small bite out of it) and as if on cue, a walnut came tumbling out of the bar. My daughter is anaphylactic to walnuts. [...]

Author: Kasia Muszynska

Jonny is 6 years old and he is about to go to a hospital for a second time in his life. He may not remember the first time, as he was only a baby, but it left him with a powerful reminder that hospitals are not a safe place to be - due to the wrong dosage of a medication he was given, he had partly lost his hearing. [...]

Author: Dr. Simon Craig

Setting the Scene:
Your 3 year-old child has an allergy to peanuts. At a friend's birthday party, she is accidentally given a home-baked cookie. Within minutes, she is struggling for breath. You administer an EpiPen with minimal effect. [...]

Author: Dr. Dennis E. Schellhase

Behind the times

As I sat down to write and began to review the increasing literature related to reducing harm due to adverse drug events (ADEs), I realized that we start several years behind. In the past decade, a growing number of programs have implemented successful safety initiatives to reduce pediatric ADEs based primarily upon W. Edward Deming’s method of improvement model1-4. We have just begun to step away from the hierarchical top down approach of innumerable policies and procedures and to slowly and gingerly move toward a frontline approach to improve quality and safety utilizing the method of improvement model. [...]