Accreditation

Researchers recommend expanding 'do-not-use' lists

Accreditation Connection, September 3, 2007

The Washington Post reports that a study, published in the September 2007 Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, recommends hospitals expand do-not-use abbreviation rules and continue to enforce existing rules to make sure improper abbreviations are not used.

Five percent of 30,000 medication errors reported to the national Medmarx database between 2004 and 2006 were the result of errors involving shorthand. The most common errors involved U (units) which can often be mistaken for zero, and QD, often mistaken for QOD.

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