Text messaging orders

[group_theory]

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Members don't see this ad.

Wow - never would have thought that today's habbits would ever lead to this.

From http://www.ismp.org/Newsletters/acutecare/currentissue.asp

An order for SLOW-MAG (magnesium chloride), misspelled as "Slomag," 64 mg TID "2Day," was received by a pharmacy. The pharmacist questioned whether this meant to give the medication TID for 2 days (her initial thought) or give it just "today" (2Day). She called to clarify the order, and it turned out that "2Day" was "text messaging" shorthand for "today." The pharmacist asked the nurse to rewrite the verbal order and politely suggested that text messaging language was not appropriate for transcribing medical orders due to potential misinterpretation. Using text messaging abbreviations with medical orders is a new and evolving chapter in the dangerous abbreviations saga.

posted in the Pharmacy forum since I figure this forum's members will appreciate it the most 👍

 

[njac]

*sigh* lovely.

I love the ISMP newsletter. I took an elective on med errors and a lot of our work was based on cases in there.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Miralax
#1 packet
T packet daily prn patient g2g

 

[npage148]

I commend the pharmacist for being polite.

 

[confettiflyer]

oh good lord these nurses, though i have a feeling we'll see at least one newly minted MD churn something out like this.

 

[UNMorBUST]

Wow. All i can say is wow.

 

[PharmDstudent]

What's so hard about playing by the rules? We're not talking about forgetting to add extra cheese on a taco or double scanning a loaf of bread at the grocery store. Sig codes for medications are serious business, because people could die if their order is screwed-up. Geez... 😱

How hard is it to follow the rules? Where's that dunce hat that they did away with back in the day? We need to bring it back to make a point. Some have to learn the hard way, but why does it have to involve medical shorthand?

 

[PharmDstudent]

Maybe we need to get rid of medical shorthand altogether...

 

[meister]

Maybe we need to get rid of medical shorthand altogether...

But it's so fun to write!

Won't be long until fully electronic orders eliminate all of these abbreviations.

 

[Glycerin]

But it's so fun to write!

Won't be long until fully electronic orders eliminate all of these abbreviations.

Technically, that was an electronic order. 😉 😛

CPOE has its own set of problems, but theoretically, yes, you'd expect (and hope) to see less errors.

 

[etspinner]

Surprised the pharmacist was that nice. As a tech I wouldn't have been that nice even.

 

[fhx06]

Too bad electronic orders do not make the handwriting any more legible. 😵