Patient Safety and Commonly Used Abbreviations

Patient safety and continuously improving the quality of care is a focus of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
The Committee on the Quality of Medical Practice has identified commonly used abbreviations and their misinterpretations as a source of concern. The committee agreed that in addition to having a list of abbreviations that should not be used, they feel that there is added value to assuring that all institutions use the same list. 

The Massachusetts Medical Society and its Committee on the Quality of Medical Practice would like to encourage you to adopt the list of "abbreviations not to use" recently issued by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and endorsed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. We believe that this brings consistency as well as clarity to the medication ordering process and enhances communication.

The ISMP standardized list of abbreviations and the acceptable alternatives is available on its website:
http://www.ismp.org/msaarticles/specialissuetableprint.htm