Medication Safety

Question 1

Tall man lettering

Answer 1

the practice of writing part of a drug name in uppercase letters to help distinguish soundalike, look-alike drugs from one another in order to avoid medication errors

Question 2

laboratory parameters/tests

Answer 2

these tests are part of a routine checkup to look for changes in your health. They also help doctors diagnose medical conditions, plan or evaluate treatments, and monitor disease

Question 3

risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS)

Answer 3

a risk management program required by the FDA to ensure that the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks

Question 4

continuous quality improvement (CQI) programs

Answer 4

requires pharmacy to include a CQI program in their policy and procedures manual and requires that the pharmacist incorporate the error into the CQI system

Question 5

common errors

Answer 5

wrong medication, strength, dosage form, quantity, dispensed to the wrong patient

Question 6

Dos and don’t of tablet splitting

Answer 6

1. don’t use scissors or kitchen knives to cut tablets-this causes uneven splitting and crumbling, which changes the correct dose. Use a tablet cutting device
2. don’t split extended-release or time-release medication. This changes their timed release
3. don’t split the entire vial of tablets at one time-air degrades the exposed drug
4. do split your tablets only as you need them, to maintain potency.