title: Prevalence of error-prone abbreviations used in medication prescribing for hospitalised patients: multi-hospital evaluation.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Department, Alfred Health, Australia. m.dooley@alfred.org.au
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dooley
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wiseman
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000004:Abbreviations as Topic; D001315:Australia; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D006236:Handwriting; D006753:Hospital Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006765:Hospitals, Convalescent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008485:Medical Audit; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014739:Victoria