Medication Safety and Error Prevention Flashcards

Which organization maintains the ISMP (Institute for Safe Medication Practices) High-Alert Medications list?

Answer: ISMP

ISMP (Institute for Safe Medication Practices) maintains the High-Alert Medications list — drugs that bear a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when used in error.

LASA (Look-Alike/Sound-Alike) medications should be stored in a pharmacy by:

Answer: Separating them physically and using tall-man lettering to distinguish names

Separating LASA drugs on shelves and using tall-man lettering (e.g., hydrALAZINE vs. hydrOXYzine) are standard strategies to reduce confusion and dispensing errors.

The '5 Rights' of medication administration include all of the following EXCEPT:

Answer: Right pharmacist

The 5 Rights are: right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, and right time. 'Right pharmacist' is not one of them.

A medication error involving a wrong drug that was dispensed but caught before the patient received it is classified as a:

Answer: Near miss (close call)

A near miss (close call) is an error that was caught and corrected before reaching the patient, unlike an adverse drug event where the patient is actually harmed.

Concentrated electrolyte solutions (e.g., potassium chloride for injection) are considered high-alert because:

Answer: If given undiluted IV, they can cause fatal cardiac arrhythmias

Concentrated KCl injected undiluted IV can cause fatal hyperkalemia and cardiac arrest. Many facilities store them only in the pharmacy and never on patient care floors.

Tall-man lettering is a strategy used to:

Answer: Differentiate LASA drug names by capitalizing distinguishing letters

Tall-man lettering uses capital letters for the differentiating portion of similar drug names (e.g., DOBUTamine vs. DOPamine) to reduce LASA errors.