Preventing medication errors
Verify the right person using two identifiers, never the room number. Read the label three times: taking it, preparing it, putting it away. Question any order that is illegible, incomplete, unusual in dose, or that does not fit the person's condition. "The doctor wrote it" is not a defence. Avoid dangerous abbreviations: write "units" in full, never a trailing zero, always a leading zero. One interruption during preparation is a known cause of error: prepare in a quiet space. After an error: assess and protect the person first, notify, document the facts, and file the incident report.