Still Don’t Use These Abbreviations

Remember all of those “do not use” abbreviations? I wrote a post about them a loooong time ago, but since then things have changed. We went from written medical charting to almost exclusively computer [hack hack] generated medical records. So the whole Joint Commission issue about a “>” looking like the number “7″ or the notation “cc” looking like two extra zeroes is – or at least should be – a moot point. And I still believe that if someone can’t tell the differences in dosing between “MSO4″ and “MgSO4″ then they shouldn’t be prescribing or administering those medications. Again, it should be a moot point since orders have to be made from dropdown lists. But some organizations don’t understand the concept of “moot.” Rules just keep At the start of my shift, a very pleasant member of the chart review team was waiting to talk to me. This same member of the chart review team had reportedly chastised a nurse because she hadn’t completed a “medication reconciliation” on a young multiple trauma patient that was flown out of our ED to a regional trauma center less than 30 minutes after arriving. Because obviously whether the patient medication list states that he took Motrin and Zyrtec on an as-needed basis was going to have a profound effect on whether he would survive his rib fractures, hemopneumothorax, and open femur fracture. In fact, wasting t...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tags: Random Thoughts Source Type: blogs