Improving Patient Safety by Improving Medication Communication

Any time that information about a patient's medication is communicated, there is a potential for error that occurs because of misinterpretation of abbreviations, acronyms, and dose designations. in the following discussion, corrective approaches for reducing the use of error-prone terms will be reviewed. Terms on the "Do Not Use" list are identified and the rationale for using "Tall Man" letters is addressed.