Death and Drug Reaction Form

In 1968, the Health Care Evaluation Committee at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Health Center (MLK) devised a Death and Drug Reaction Form. The form was to be completed by any team member who learned about the death of a patient cared for by his team. Physicians were asked to report adverse drug reactions on the same form. More important than the overall view of deaths at MLK has been an analysis on an individual basis of the relation of care received to the cause and course of death. Some patients choose to solely use the oncologist, as an absence of notes from the MLK practitioner in the chart for six months prior to death reveals. Several cases of uncontrolled hypertensives dying from acute left ventricular failure have been used to demonstrate to teams the crucial importance of rapid and sustained control of blood pressure.