Avoiding Common Medication Errors

By VeriScorePrep Team · 4 min

Most medication errors are preventable and arise from system lapses, not individual carelessness. Defense relies on consistent, layered habits.

Concentration of risk

Insulin, heparin, opioids, sedatives, and chemotherapy account for a disproportionate share of harm. These need independent double-checks — a second qualified clinician independently verifies drug, dose, route, and calculation before administration.

Common slip-ups

• Sound-alike, look-alike (LASA) drugs — use tall-man lettering and verify with the order.
• Trailing zeros (write 5 mg, not 5.0 mg) and leading zeros for fractions (write 0.5 mg, not .5 mg).
• Misreading decimal points in dose calculations — recalculate and confirm.
• Skipping barcode scanning due to time pressure.

Practice

Follow the rights of medication administration, scan when available, document after giving (not before), and never bypass a safety prompt. If something feels off, stop and verify — a pause is always cheaper than a wrong dose.