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Prevalence of error‐prone abbreviations used in medication prescribing for hospitalised patients: multi‐hospital evaluation
Author(s) -
Dooley M. J.,
Wiseman M.,
Gu G.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.2011.02697.x
Subject(s) - medicine , medication error , harm , emergency medicine , medline , pediatrics , patient safety , health care , political science , law , economics , economic growth
The use of error‐prone abbreviations in prescribing is a potential cause of misinterpretation that may lead to medication error. This study determined frequency and type of error‐prone abbreviations in inpatient medication prescribing across three Australian hospitals. Three hundred and sixty‐nine (76.9%) patients had one or more error‐prone abbreviations used in prescribing, with 8.4% of orders containing at least one error‐prone abbreviation and 29.6% of these considered to be high risk for causing significant harm.