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Steps to overturn prohibited abbreviation RFIs

Briefings on The Joint Commission, December 1, 2006

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How to examine a random sample to show compliance

Use of unapproved or prohibited abbreviations is a common RFI, but there is a way to overturn them when you submit your evidence of standards compliance.

National Patient Safety Goal requirement #2b calls on hospitals to standardize a list of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and, starting on January 1, 2007, dose designations that are not to be used in the organization. The accreditor has "do not use" abbreviations that can be mistaken for different drugs or dosages, the most commonly used of which are Q.D. (once daily), Q.O.D. (every other day), and U (units), says Steve Bryant, vice president and managing director of The Greeley Company in Marblehead, MA, a division of HCPro, Inc., which publishes BOJ.

The requirement is scored at a C level, which means that a surveyor must find three or more examples of noncompliance by one healthcare provider in three records or by three providers in one record to write an RFI. But if the hospital can show that it complied with the requirement 90% of the time, the Joint Commission will overturn the RFI.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Briefings on The Joint Commission.

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