Medical Abbreviation Error

Medical abbreviations have been responsible for potential medication errors. The Joint Commission has developed an official “Do Not Use” list of common abbreviations that frequently results in misinterpretation and treatment errors. An example is the misinterpretation of the letter “U” intended to represent the word “units” being frequently interpreted as a 0. For instance “10U means 10 units but it is misread as “100”. This error can cause administration of an inappropriate dose, jeopardizing the patient’s safety. The other example is abbreviation “IU” that stands for “international unit” can be mistaken for “IV” (intravenous) or the number “10”. Some abbreviations stand for more than one word and perhaps can create confusion. For example,
the abbreviation CC stands for chief complaint, cubic centimeter, critical care, complications, or carbon copy.