The existence of confusing drug names is one of the most common
causes of medication error and is of concern worldwide.
With tens of thousands of drugs currently on the market, the potential
for error due to confusing drug names is significant. This
includes non-proprietary names and proprietary (brand or trademarked)
names. Many drug names look or sound like other drug
names.
The Institute
for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has posted an eight-page
listing of medication name pairs actually involved in medication
errors.
FDA and ISMP Lists of
Look-Alike Drug Names with Recommended Tall Man Letters by click this
An example for sound-like that occurred actually in practice is Azithromycin and Erythromycin when written in Arabic order, Erythromycin dispensed instead of Azithromycin, so to avoid this error from occurrence or repeated you can follow or apply one of the following:
Design special list of LASA drugs in your hospital according to your institute drug formulary.
Physical separation of LASA drugs at your pharmacy and preparation or storage area of medication.
Making coloured labels of confused drugs for look-alike drugs.
Ensure writing drug bilingual and clarify dose&conc for sound-alike drugs.
Repeat verbal orders and ensure double revision by nurse /pharmacist.
Design special policy for verbal orders.
Use Tall Man lettering to emphasise differences in medications with
sound-alike names.
Use additional warning labels for look-alike medicines.
Report any medication error and make regular alerts for health team and announce for it to decrease ability for re-occuring.
for more info about LASA drugs you can visit link bellow:
