Abbreviations used prescriptions

Table 1.2.1 Some commonly used Latin abbreviations in prescription writing ...

Table 65-1 Abbreviations Used in Prescriptions and Chart Orders. ...

The Subscription represents the directions to the dispenser and indicates the type of dosage form or the number of dosage units. For compounded prescriptions, the subscription is written using English or Latin abbreviations. A few examples are provided as follows ... 

Abbreviations and dose expressions cause medication errors. The handwritten or printed u intended to abbreviate unit can easily be misinterpreted as a zero, causing a 10-fold overdose. Decimal points can be difficult to read on prescriptions or orders, causing a 10-fold dose error. Decimals less than 1 should always be preceded by a zero (use 0.2, not. 2) and a whole number should not be followed by a zero (use 2, not 2.0). The Institute for Safe Medicafion Practices (ISMP) has additional recommendations on abbreviations and dose expressions (Table 16.6). ... 

Practitioners are encouraged to recommend auxiliary labeling on prescriptions whenever appropriate. Such additional information can be effective in fostering compliance and therefore ensuring the safe, appropriate, and judicious use of the prescription. Common auxiliary labels include phrases listed in Box 4-1. Some prescribers tend to use colloquial shorthand abbreviations for drugs and conditions. Caution should be exercised in using abbreviations, however, because potential for error exists in interpretation. 

Traditional extemporaneous prescription-writing art, defining drug, base, adjuvant, corrective, flavouring and vehicle is obsolete, as is the use of the Latin language. Certain convenient Latin abbreviations do survive for lack of convenient English substitutes (chiefly in hospitals where instructions are given to nurses and not to patients). They are listed below, without approval or disapproval. 

Abbreviations in Medicine are certain Marks or half Words used by Physicians for the sake of Dispatch and Conveniency in their Prescriptions, tho some are pleas d to give another Interpretation to the thing, as if it was design d to conceal their Art from such s knew less Latin than themselves, or their ignorance from such as know more but this... 

Abbreviations can cause dispensing errors. A prescription intending every-other-day dosing (qod) may be miswritten as od by the physician for other-day dosing the pharmacist wUl interpret od as the abbreviation of the Latin for right eye. Once-daily dosing at bedtime (qhs) may be misinterpreted as qhr for every hour. The use of slash marks ( ) to separate names and doses... 

FIGURE A—1 The prescription. The prescription must be carefully prepared to identify the patient and the medication to be dispensed, as well as the manner in which the drug is to be administered. Accuracy and legibility are essential. Use of abbreviations, particularly Latin, is discouraged, as it leads to dispensing errors. Inclusion of the purpose of the medication in the subscription (e.g., control of blood pressure") can prevent errors in dispensing. For example, the use of losartan for the treatment of hypertension may require 100 mg/day (1.4 mg/kg per day), whereas treat-... 

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