The purpose of this evidence based paper is to discuss the positive and negative effects of abbreviations in healthcare. Abbreviations in health care are important to patient care in many ways, both good and bad. Abbreviations are meant to make patient care faster and more efficient. However, sometimes abbreviations can pose a barrier, especially for inexperienced nurses. There are thousands of abbreviations in health care, and they are always changing and adding new ones. In a recent study it was found that 76.9% of patients were prescribed with error-prone abbreviations (Dooley, 2012). This astonishing fact as led to many regulations being placed on charting and prescribing. Error-prone abbreviations are abbreviations that can be easily …show more content…
Without the appropriate selection of laboratory tests patient care and diagnoses are compromised (Passiment, 2013). Deciphering laboratory names and tests is imperative to optimal care (Passiment, 2013). Not only does misinterpretation put the patient at risk, and delay treatment, it is also costing the hospitals a lot of money (Passiment, 2013). This issue may not be human error though. The laboratories use a LIS (Laboratory Information System) to pair and assign the abbreviations per there regulations (Passiment, 2013). The vernacular has been adopted from institution to institution so much to where a newcomer may not understand what the physician and laboratory personnel are talking about (Passiment, 2013). Passiment is quoted saying “The complexity of laboratory test names and abbreviations compromises the physician’s ability to appropriately utilize laboratory services, delays patient care and waste health care resources” (Passiment, 2013, p. ??). If what is stated is correct, then abbreviations are serving the exact opposite purpose than they were meant for. Passiment and company propose that a search engine like Bing or Google should be implemented in practice to help standardize the laboratory abbreviations (Passiment, …show more content…
These abbreviations should never be used in any medical communication (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2015). Q1d could be easily mistaken as qid (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2015). These two abbreviations could be the difference in life and death. One dose daily or four times daily is a big difference. Other than abbreviations, other common errors include trailing zeros, and “naked” decimal points (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2015). The Institute for Safe Medication Practices also put out a recommended tall man letters list. This list is meant to help differentiate between look-alike drugs (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2016). This list specifically puts capital letters in the drug name that is different from look-alike drugs to help draw attention to the difference (Institute for Safe Medication Practices,
This is a critical review of the article entitled “Selecting a Standardized Terminology for the Electronic Health Record that Reveals the Impact of Nursing on Patient Care”. In this article, Lundberg, C.B. et al. review the different standardized terminology in electronic health records (EHR) used by nurses to share medical information to the rest of the care team. It aims at showing that due to the importance of nursing in patient care, there is a great need for a means to represent information in a way that all the members of the multidisciplinary medical team can accurately understand. This standardization varies from organization to organization as the terminologies change with respect to their specialized needs.
First, this text will discuss some background on Labcorp to form a better understanding of the business, and the practices used. Labcorp is one of the largest clinical Laboratories in the world, which includes many wholly owned subsidiaries. The Laboratory Corporation of America (2013) website LabCorp has over 220,000 clients and process over 400,000 samples per day. LabCorp uses an innovative clinical laboratory processing, referral, and specimen testing information systems to create fluent, and easy to use specimen processing and testing. This process has developed through time, and LabCorp has grown into a robust multi- laboratory testing facilities through the buyout, and absorption of numerous specialty laboratories. As the buyout of subsidiaries has been a large part of the growth of this business, information technology had to grow along side, as the connection between all sites became critical for survival, to keep the stance of a premier multifunctional Laboratory tycoon (Laboratory Corporation of America, 2013).
The use of abbreviations shortens length of many words thus really help healthcare professionals in saving time spent in writing notes. Abbreviations however do not always provide positive contributions due to misconceptions, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations leading to commitment of errors in the practice. Similarities in abbreviations for instance could root to a grave mistake. For instance the q.d. which an inscriber would like to indicate as every day could be erroneously interpreted as q.i.d. which means four times a day. Such error could result to over dosage when a certain medication is taken four times in a day instead of just once. Though some abbreviations can be easily understood clearly and exactly as to what meaning they communicate, the use of abbreviations generally invite error potentials particularly the error-prone abbreviations (ISMP, 2007) which can be best avoided by eliminating abbreviations.
Eliminating abbreviations can reduce errors in the healthcare profession when it comes to medication errors, patients dealing with a life threatening medical error, and similar abbreviations.
Nurses were the professional group who most often reported medication errors and older patients were those most often affected in the medication errors reports analyzed for this study (Friend, 2011). Medication error type’s revealed omitted medicine or dose, wrong dose, strength or frequency and wrong documentation were the most common problems at Site A where the traditional pen and paper methods of prescription were used; and wrong documentation and omission were the most common problems associated with medication errors at Site B where the electronic MMS was introduced (Friend, 2011). Reports of problems such as wrong drug, wrong dose, strength or frequency, quantity, wrong route, wrong drug and omitted dose were less frequent at Site B (Friend, 2011). The reduced incidence of omission errors at Site B supports suggestions that an advantage of the MMS is easy identification of patient requirements at each drug round time slot. Despite the finding of less omission errors at site B where the MMS had been introduced, there was a relatively high frequency in the incident reports of medication errors related to both omission and wrong dose, strength and frequency at both sites (Friend, 2011).
CLIA is matter and it's design to improved the quality of clinical laboratory testing to the patients for safety and assurance that the healthcare facility will provide the best services to every individual. Each laboratory must have a certified to perform test and must follow written procedures to be able to give a positive and outstanding outcome. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00016177.htm
Now while it incorporates tall-man letters to easily define words easily. This can also make it more difficult to establish correct medications. I think these recommendations can help and hinder in the medical field. It can help by more easily figuring out which word a physician is trying to use. Especially when health care professionals are using between each other. This list could eventually become a certified list since the table two portion of the list is words not yet approved by the FDA. Though at the same time the list could also cause problems between the physician and the pharmacy since the words are not yet
If there were any incorrect abbreviations in the health record, they may have diagnosed her with something that she didn’t actually have. Or the doctors could’ve given her prescriptions to medications she wouldn’t have needed. It is so important that they use correct abbreviations and correct terms
Medication errors made by medical staff bring about consequences of epidemic proportions. Medical staff includes everyone from providers (medical doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to pharmacists to nurses (registered and practical). Medication errors account for almost 98,000 deaths in the United States yearly (Tzeng, Yin, & Schneider, 2013). This number only reflects the United States, a small percentage in actuality when looking at the whole world. Medical personnel must take responsibility for their actions and with this responsibility comes accountability in their duties of medication administration. Nurses play a major role in medication error prevention and education and this role distinguishes them as reporters of errors.
Fischbach, Frances, A Manual of Laboratory & Diagnostic Tests, 4th ed., J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia
Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Wakefield, B. J., Holman, T. U., & Wakefield, D. S. (2005). Development and Validation of the Medication Administration Error Reporting Survey. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
When it comes to eliminating the abbreviations in the medical field, this could greatly reduce some of the errors that occur on patient charts and in other types of important paperwork as well. Many of the medical abbreviations are quite similar and can cause a bit of confusion among some of the personnel. A great deal of errors involving abbreviations can occur when medical staff are trying to rush while they are writing d...
Handbook of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests with Nursing Implications (3rd edition). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.
Westgard, J. O. (2013). Perspectives on Quality Control, Risk Management, and Analytical Quality Management. Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 33(1), 1-14.
Correction (defects): Adverse drug reactions. Readmission because of inappropriate discharge. Repeating tests because of incorrect information. Waiting Waiting for doctors to discharge patients. Waiting for the test results.