P H A R M A G R A M
OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, Illinois
...an educational memo from your Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee
July, 2001
Improved Patient Safety Through Better Prescription Writing:
Deaths and increased morbidity have been associated with poorly or illegibly written prescriptions. Everyone who writes orders should take a little extra time to re-read those orders and see if your writing may pose a potential hazard to patient care. Examples of writing habits that have resulted in patient harm are listed below.
Use a leading zero prior to a decimal point 0.7 NOT .7
Do not use a trailing zero after a decimal point 8 NOT 8.0
Do not use ‘U’ for units 6 units NOT 6U
Do not use ‘qd’ for daily daily NOT qd
Do not use ‘mcg’ for micrograms micrograms NOT mcg
Do not abbreviate drug names acetaminophen NOT APAP
Do not use elemental doses for calcium or iron 900 mg NOT 57.5 mg
calcium elemental glucobionate calcium
Use ‘phenytoin equivalence’ for dosing fosphenytoin 1000 mg PE NOT 1500 mg
Miconazole Topical Powder Replaces Nystatin Powder on Formulary:
Miconazole topical powder, which is significantly less expensive than nystatin powder, was judged to be therapeutically equivalent to nystatin powder for the treatment of similar dermatologic fungal infections. The P&T Committee deleted nystatin powder from the Formulary and will allow for autosubstitution with miconazole powder by the Pharmacy
Humalog 75/25 Added to the Formulary:
Humalog 75/25, a combination of the rapid onset, short acting insulin lispro and the longer, intermediate acting insulin lispro protamine suspension, was added to the Formulary. Nurses, physicians and patients must be cautioned that the packaging of this product looks similar to the other insulins which could lead to confusion and administration of the wrong product. Only three insulin products, regular, isophane (NPH) and 70/30, will be maintained as floor stock on the nursing units. All other insulins will be dispensed for specific patients, with the pharmacy label attached.
Sotalol (Betapace) and Sotalol AF (Betapace AF):
Sotalol has been approved by the FDA and marketed as two separate products; Betapace and Betapace AF. The product literature for Betapace describes it’s use for the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias while Betapace AF is indicated for the maintenance of normal sinus rhythm in patients with symptomatic atrial fibrillation or flutter who are currently in sinus rhythm. Although the labeling, product information, and even the tablet colors are different for each product, the drug is the same, which is sotalol. The FDA required that the sotalol be packaged differently because of the different indications.
Report Adverse Drug Events on the ADE Hotline – 655-6805