Abbreviations Dangerous List - Medical Abbreviations ©2020
PURPOSE
Certain abbreviations and dose designations have been identified through national medical error
reports to be associated with medical errors because of their potential to be misread or misinterpreted.
The purpose of this policy is to reduce the potential for medical errors by restricting the use of
abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations that have been identified as being dangerous
when used in medical record documentation.
POLICY
1. FHW has designated the abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations listed below as “dangerous” (“do not use”) abbreviations. These abbreviations shall not be used in any hand-written or free-text computer patient care documentation, or on pre-printed medical record forms or standing orders.
2. The use of other generally accepted medical abbreviations is permitted. However, when an abbreviation has multiple meanings, the author of the entry must write out the word rather than writing an abbreviation. The hospital’s reference for medical abbreviations is which can be accessed through the “medabbrev” link on the FHW Intranet page.
|Dangerous Abbreviation |Rationale |Use Instead |
|U, u |Mistaken as the numbers zero or 4 |Use “units” |
|IU |Mistaken as “IV” or “10” |Use “units” |
|Q.D., QD, q.d., qd |Mistaken as QID or OD (right eye) |Use “daily” |
|Q.O.D., QOD, q.o.d., qod |Mistaken as QD or QID |Use “every other day” |
|Trailing zero ( e.g., 1.0 mg ) |Mistaken as 10 if the decimal point is not seen. |Do not use trailing zeros for doses expressed in |
|Note: A trailing zero may be used only when | |whole numbers. |
|required to demonstrate the level of precision of | | |
|the value being reported, such as for laboratory | | |
|results, imaging studies that report the size of | | |
|lesion, or catheter/tube sizes. | | |
|Lack of a leading zero (Aka:“Naked” decimal |Mistaken as 5mg if decimal point is not seen. |Use zero before a decimal point when dose is less |
|point”) | |than a whole unit. |
|( e.g., .5 mg ) | | |
|MS, MSO4 |Mistaken as magnesium sulfate |Write out “morphine” |
|MgSO4 |Mistaken as morphine sulfate |Write out “magnesium sulfate” |
References:
▪ 2015 Joint Commission Standards – Standard IM.02.02.01
▪ Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)
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