General principles of safe prescribing Draft

Written by grixtik on . Posted in Development

Medications should be prescribed on the National Inpatient Medication Chart using the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s Recommendations for terminology, abbreviations and symbols used in medicines documentation.

The graphic below outlines the key safe prescribing principles.

 

Use plain English, avoid jargon.

Write all characters clearly and individually, especially when writing medicine names.

Write instructions and routes of administration in full.

Avoid acronyms or abbreviations for medical terms and procedure names on orders or prescriptions.

 

Instructions must be clear.

Use generic medicine names.
Some exceptions occur.

Write medicine names in full.

Do not abbreviate any medicine name.

Write chemical names in full.

Do not use abbreviations.

Do not include the salt of the chemical unless it is clinically significant.

Use National Tall Man Lettering for ‘look alike, sound alike’ medicines.

Ensure the dose is written clearly using words or hindu arabic numbers.

Do not use roman numerals or trailing zeros.

 

Use 24-hour
time for
time of day
administration.

Avoid fractions.

Do not use symbols.