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Medication Order

A medication order is a written or verbal direction from a prescribing practitioner to administer a specific medication to an individual. It includes elements like the patient's information, date and time, medication name and dosage, route of administration, frequency and duration. Look-alike and sound-alike medication names can cause confusion and errors, such as physicians prescribing the wrong drug or nurses dispensing the wrong one. To reduce these risks, health professionals should use both generic and brand names when referring to similar medications and consider tall man letters in computer systems.

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369 views2 pages

Medication Order

A medication order is a written or verbal direction from a prescribing practitioner to administer a specific medication to an individual. It includes elements like the patient's information, date and time, medication name and dosage, route of administration, frequency and duration. Look-alike and sound-alike medication names can cause confusion and errors, such as physicians prescribing the wrong drug or nurses dispensing the wrong one. To reduce these risks, health professionals should use both generic and brand names when referring to similar medications and consider tall man letters in computer systems.

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MEDICATION ORDER

Medication Order – written directions provided by a prescribing practitioner for a specific


medication to be administered to an individual. The prescribing practitioner may also give a
medication order verbally to a licensed person such as a pharmacist or a nurse.
Elements of a Medication Order:
a) Client’s Information (eg. Name, age, weight, room number, patient’s records, etc)
b) Date and time of order
c) Medication name (generic and brand name)
d) Dosage of medication (Dosage form and Strength)
e) Route of administration (by mouth; IV; injection; eye drops; G-tube; etc)
f) Time and frequency the medication should be given (this may include the duration of
therapy)
g) Signature of person ordering medication
An example:
LOOK-alike and SOUND-alike medications
Drug name confusion is common with many medication. Here are a couple of reports involving
look-alike and/or sound-alike drug names reported to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices
Medication Errors Reporting System (ISMP MERP) from July through september 2010.
Depakote (divalproex sodium delayed release) Depakote ER (divalproex sodium extended
release)
Dexamethasone dextromethorphan
Doribax (doripenem) Zovirax (acyclovir)
DTao (diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and Tdap (tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria-toxoid,
acellular pertussis) and acellular pertussis)
LaMICtal (lamotrigine) LamISIL (terbinafine hydrochloride)
Oxycodon oxyCONTIN (oxycodone hydrochloride extended
release)
Pitavastatin pravastatin
Pitocin (oxytocin) Pitressin (vasopressin)
SulfaDIAZINE SulfaSALAzine
traMADol traZODone
Zolmitriptan zolpedim

Errors have involved physicians prescribing the wrong drug, as well as nurses and
pharmacists who confused the drugs while transcribing and dispensing them or misinterpreted
the drug name due to hand writing.
So, the health professionals should consider using BOTH generic and brand name when
referring to drugs with almost the same sound, and spelling, and determining their purpose when
processing the orders. Using tall man letters when listing the drugs in computerized inventories
may help reduce the risk of medication errors (consider using valACYclovir and
valGANciclovir). You might also be able to configure a computer alert to warn of the risk of
mix-ups during order entry.

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