A 70 -year-old man is admitted to the hospital with endocarditis. At seven days of therapy the antibiotic order expires and you forget to reorder the medication for two days in the middle of a four-week course of intravenous antibiotics. There is no clinical deterioration and the antibiotics are restarted.
What should you tell the patient?
a. Tell the patient it was a clerical error.
b. Because it was not clinically significant you do not have to say anything to the patient.
c. Apologize and tell the patient that you forgot to reorder the antibiotics, but that he will be all right.
d. Inform your chief resident but not the patient.
e. Ask the nurse to tell the patient about the error.