ABBREVIATION ERRORS Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ABBREVIATION ERRORS - Assignment Example d that the Institute of Medicine reported that more than 7,000 deaths a year are due to medication errors which was published in their 1999 review To Err is Human (Landers ). Due to this disturbing report, a campaign was launched in 2006 by FDA and IMP to reduce errors, wherein one of the main thrusts of that campaign was to eliminate some error-prone notations like U and IU ( FDA press release 2006 ) The following three abbreviations chosen that were prone to error are the following : BT ( bedtime ),q1d ( once a daily), and u ( for units ). BT is commonly mistaken as BID ( twice daily ) which can be lethal when the medication can cause extreme reactions to the patient when an over dose is given. Another mistake would be q1d which can be thought of as 4 times daily since it closely resembles qid .;thus, administering a dosage four times the original dosage can have produce other unwanted symptoms such as allergy or even shock that can complete the doctor’s treatment. The third abbreviation is u ( units ) which is commonly mistaken 0 or 4 thereby increasing the dosage as much as ten times. Consequently, the result would be an overdose that would stress out the liver or kidneys of the patient which can cause serious complications or even death. The Purpose of the safety goals is to promote safety when using abbreviations in prescribing. The Goals main focus is clarity in written communication that will result to correct administration of