Lose the Latin

Everyone jokes about how bad doctors’ writing can be, but an illegible prescription could adversely affect a patient’s health.

“It can be dangerous because it can be misinterpreted,” says Shelley Novak, VGH Medication Safety Pharmacist.

For example, “qd” on a prescription is short for “quaque diem,” which means “every day” in Latin. But if the person writing it is not careful, it could look like “qid,” meaning “four times a day.”

“A patient would get their medications four times a day instead of once day,” Shelley says. “So it’s very important to not use the “qd” abbreviation and instead write out the word ‘daily.’”  VCH has a list of DO NOT USE Dangerous Abbreviations, Symbols and Dose Designations that should not be used when writing medication orders.

Patient Safety Week

Shelley and other members of the VA Med Safety Committee were hosting a booth at the Sassafras Cafeteria, educating staff about medication safety as part of the annual Patient Safety Week running from October 28 to November 1. Not only was this group showing the risks of abbreviations in prescriptions, it also distributed the very handy “My Medication Card,” which patients can use to keep track of the potentially many medications they’re taking.

“If they end up in emergency, not feeling well, it’s a lot easier for them to bring that out, than trying to remember all the medications they are on” says Amy Wai, Regional Medication Safety Coordinator. “It also makes it easier for the health care team, rather than trying to figure out what the patient is taking and what’s changed.”

In addition to medication safety, the week looks at other topics (link to schedule) related to patient safety such as reducing C-difficile infections and using Glo Germ, a product that shows how germs spread and proper hand washing.

Canadian Patient Safety Week is an annual campaign started by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.