Medical Terminology, Hit 107
Abbreviations and Acronyms in the Healthcare Industry
Introduction
The use of abbreviations and acronyms in healthcare has become an international patient safety issue. Common problems include ambiguous, unfamiliar, and look-alike abbreviations and acronyms leading to misinterpretation and medical errors. The patient’s safety is a common goal in every healthcare institution. One of the major issues in a patient safety is an error that can be caused by an abbreviation. The most common is medication errors. One of the most common but preventable causes of medication errors is the use of ambiguous medical notations. Some abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations are frequently misinterpreted and lead to mistakes that result in patient harm. They can also delay the start of therapy and waste time spent in clarification.
Body
Q1
Patient safety and promotion of zero medication error are common goals in every healthcare institution, thus eliminating abbreviations can reduce life-threatening medical errors, and medication errors is the most frequent problem. A nurse administering the wrong dosage to a patient if the physician’s handwritten abbreviations are not clear can be lethal. As well, when a patient is transferred from one care provider to another, if the medical records are written with abbreviations this could lead to tragic results. Thus providing clear, communication, unabbreviated prescribed prescriptions, reports, and records would greatly reduce medical errors. However eliminating all medical abbreviations would reduce errors but if abbreviations were eliminated it would make it very difficult on medical professionals who would have to write out very lengthy medical terms. According to Dr. Darryl S. Rich, “to minimize the potential for error and to maximize patient safety, prescribers need to avoid such specifically dangerous abbreviations and phrases.” (www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_23.htm)
A reality of
Introduction
The use of abbreviations and acronyms in healthcare has become an international patient safety issue. Common problems include ambiguous, unfamiliar, and look-alike abbreviations and acronyms leading to misinterpretation and medical errors. The patient’s safety is a common goal in every healthcare institution. One of the major issues in a patient safety is an error that can be caused by an abbreviation. The most common is medication errors. One of the most common but preventable causes of medication errors is the use of ambiguous medical notations. Some abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations are frequently misinterpreted and lead to mistakes that result in patient harm. They can also delay the start of therapy and waste time spent in clarification.
Body
Q1
Patient safety and promotion of zero medication error are common goals in every healthcare institution, thus eliminating abbreviations can reduce life-threatening medical errors, and medication errors is the most frequent problem. A nurse administering the wrong dosage to a patient if the physician’s handwritten abbreviations are not clear can be lethal. As well, when a patient is transferred from one care provider to another, if the medical records are written with abbreviations this could lead to tragic results. Thus providing clear, communication, unabbreviated prescribed prescriptions, reports, and records would greatly reduce medical errors. However eliminating all medical abbreviations would reduce errors but if abbreviations were eliminated it would make it very difficult on medical professionals who would have to write out very lengthy medical terms. According to Dr. Darryl S. Rich, “to minimize the potential for error and to maximize patient safety, prescribers need to avoid such specifically dangerous abbreviations and phrases.” (www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_23.htm)
A reality of
References: 1. Acronyms and initialism. (2006). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym 2 3. Calfee, B. (1997). Abbreviations that cause injury, complicate communication and may kill! The Director, 5(4), 128. 4 5. Das-Purkayastha, P., McLeod, K., & Canter, R. (2004). Specialist medical abbreviations as a foreign language. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 97, 456-457. 6 7. Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (2001). Please don 't sleep through this wake-up call. ISMP Medication Safety Alert; http://www.ismp.org/ Newsletters/acutecare/articles/ 20010502.asp 8 9. Institute for Safe Medication Practices. (2004). Hospital and medical staff leadership is key to compliance with JCAHO dangerous abbreviation standard. http://www.ismp.org/Newsletters/acutecare/articles/20040812_2.asp?ptr=y 10 11. Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety. (2006). Implementation tips for eliminating dangerous abbreviations; http://www.jcipatientsafety.org/show.asp?durki=9733&site=164&return=9335 12 13. Madison Patient Safety Collaborative. (2006). Eliminating the use of dangerous abbreviations. http://www.madisonpatientsafety.org/projects/abbreviations.htm 14 15. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 16 17. The Journal of the American Medical Association. (2007, August 3, 2007). Instructions for authors. http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/ifora.dtl -------------------------------------------------