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UNACCEPTABLE / UNAPPROVED (DO NOT USE) ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS PURPOSE: This policy will provide clinical and medical staff with a listing of unacceptable abbreviations and symbols, which may lead to confusion, misinterpretation, and possible medication error(s) if used.POLICY:Prescribers shall not use the listed abbreviations and/or symbols in their orders/prescriptions.Orders using any of these unacceptable abbreviations and/or symbols shall not be noted/transcribed by Nursing staff and shall be returned to the prescriber for correction.Orders using these unacceptable abbreviations and/or symbols received by the Pharmacy shall be returned to the prescriber for correction prior to being filled.Staff shall not use the listed unacceptable abbreviations and/or symbols when documenting in the medical record.Unacceptable Abbreviation/ Symbol/ Intended MeaningMisinterpretation(Potential Problem)Use Instead(Preferred)u (u), mu or iuunits, million units or international unitsread as a zero (0) or a four (4), causing a 10-fold overdose or greater (4u seen as '40' or 4u seen as '44'). iu misread as ivunit has no acceptable abbreviation use "unit."ugmicrogrammistaken for 'mg' when handwritten.mcgq.d., q.d., q.i.d., or q.o.d.in Latin for 'once daily, four times a day, or every other day'mistaken as 'q.i.d.' especially if the period after the "q" or the tail of the "q" is misunderstood as an "i.""daily" or "every day" or "four times a day" or "every other day'" " " " (ditto marks)repeat what is abovemisinterpreted as 77do not use, rewrite what is above instead>greater thanmisunderstood/ mistaken for the opposite meaningwrite "greater than"<less thanmisunderstood/ mistaken for the opposite meaningwrite "less than"trailing 'zero' (2.0 mg)2 mgdecimal point is missed and misread as 20 mgdo not use trailing/ terminal zeros for doses expressed in whole numbers (2 mg)lack of a leading zero (e.g. .5 mg).5 mgdecimal point is missed and misread as 5 mgalways use a 'zero' before a decimal when the dose is less than whole unit (0.5 mg)MSMSO4 , MGSO4Morphine sulfateMagnesium sulfateConfused for one anotherWrite morphine sulfateWrite magnesium sulfateTop of Form ................
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