KEY TERM
Organization that provides assistance and treatment for impaired colleagues who seek help without risk of losing their license or registration.
Pharmacist Recovery Network (PRN)
Program designed by the FDA for prescribers, pharmacies, and patients to more closely monitor selected high‑risk drugs.
REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategy)
Tall man lettering
Enhanced lettering on the stock labels of similar‑sounding high‑risk medications, or other labeling changes, to help differentiate products and dosages and reduce medication errors.
Taking a drug continuously so that when the medication is stopped, physical withdrawal symptoms occur.
Physical dependence
Logical and systematic process used to help identify what, how, and why something happened to prevent recurrence.
Root‑cause analysis
Error generated by failure of equipment.
Technical failure
When the patient takes a drug on a regular basis because it produces a sense of well‑being that the patient does not feel in normal daily life or living without the drug.
Psychological dependence
Error that occurs because of the pressure of meeting corporate or self‑imposed time constraints and thus not fully checking and double‑checking information by the technician and pharmacist.
Rushed error
Error when a dose is either above or below the correct amount by more than 5%.
Wrong amount error
Acronym for what to do in the case of a robbery.
REACT
Error that occurs when there is more than one option exists and the incorrect option is chosen.
Selection error
Postmarketing surveillance system operated by the FDA and CDC that collects information on adverse events that occur after immunization.
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System)
Ability of a pharmacist to decline with cause to fill any prescription, especially those for controlled substances.
Right of refusa
Acronym for advice for hospital patients to get the safest, best healthcare, promoted by the Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
SPEAK UP
Program designed to allow healthcare professionals to report vaccine errors directly to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).
VERP (Vaccine Error Reporting Program)