The New York Times May 11, 1913, Page 1
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BELLS ON POISON BOTTLES.
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Novel Method of Preventing Mistakes in St. Louis Hospital.
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Special to The New York Times.
ST. LOUIS, May 10. --- Sleigh bells tinkled in all the wards of the City Hospital
to-day. There was such a merry concert as the nurses moved from place to place that the
curiosity of the patients was aroused. They found that the bells were chained to the necks
of bottles containing poisonous drugs. Every time a nurse picked up a bottle of carbolic
acid the noise of the bells attracted not only her attention, but that of all the patients
in the ward.
Dr. Wayne Smith, Superintendent of the hospital, issued an order to put bells on the
poison bottles after Thomas Adams, an attendant at the City Hospital, had been indicted
for giving carbolic acid to a patient by mistake. The patient died.
