Thursday February 9, 2006
Basic housekeeking - JCAHO mandated "Do Not Use" abbreviations
As intensivists are assuming more and more leadership and role model figure in hospitals, here are the JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) mandated "Do Not Use" abbreviations - meeting NPSG (National Patient Safety Goals) Requirement 2B. Please note 3 important points:
1. The minimum expected level of compliance for handwritten documentation and free-text entry is 90 % and for pre-printed forms is 100 %.
2. Clarification of an order prior to implementation and after-the-fact correction of the order by the clinician does not eliminate that occurrence from being counted. (If pharmacy or nurse calls you to clarify the order its an 'occurance').
3. One occurrence equals one per clinician per record and three occurrences equal a Requirement for Improvement.
Here is the JCAHO mandated "Do Not Use" abbreviations
Do not write U or IU - Write "unit" or "international unit".
Do not write Q.D., Q.O.D. - Write "once daily and every other day".
Never write a zero by itself after a decimal point (5 mg instead of 5.0 mg), and always use a zero before a decimal point ( 0.5 mg instead of .5 mg).
Do not write MS or MSO4 - Write "morphine sulfate".
Do not write MgSO4 - Write "magnesium sulfate".
