terms
Pharmacist Recovery Network (PRN)
An organization to provide assistance and treatment for impaired colleagues who seek help without the risk of losing their license or registration.
REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategy)
A program designed by the FDA for prescribers, pharmacists, and patients to more closely monitor selected high-risk drugs.
Tall man lettering
Enhanced lettering on the stock labels of similar-sounding high-risk medications, or other labeling to help better differentiate products and dosages and reduce medication errors.
Addiction
Compulsive and uncontrollable use of a drug substance for reasons other than prescribed.
Adverse drug error
When the prescribed drug initiates an allergy or an adverse drug interaction flag that was missed.
Physical dependence
Taking a drug continuously so that when the medication is stopped, physical withdrawal symptoms occur.
Root-cause analysis
A logical and systematic process used to help identify what, how, and why something happened to prevent recurrence.
Technical failure
An error generated by failure of equipment or the system.
Medguide
Printed information in which the FDA communicates side effects, adverse reactions, and black-box warnings for high-risk drugs.
Alert fatigue
When the technician and/or the pharmacist start to have a relaxed attitude and bypass drug utilization warnings.
Psychological dependence
When the patient takes a drug on a regular basis because it produces a sense of well-being that the patient does not want to consider living or being without.
Rushed error
Occurs because of the pressure of meeting the complete or self-imposed time constraints and thus not fully checking and double-checking information by the technician and pharmacist.
Wrong amount error
An error in which the dosage form or formulation is not the accepted interpretation of the physician order.
MEDMARX
An Internet-based program of the USP for use by hospitals and healthcare systems for documenting, tracking, and identifying trends for adverse events and medication errors.
Drug seeker
A patient who is dependent on or addicted to drugs, who may receive prescriptions for the same or similar controlled drugs from several physicians and pharmacies.
REACT
An acronym related to a specific process or strategy.
Selection error
An error that occurs when two or more options exist, and the incorrect option is chosen.
VAERS (vaccine adverse event reporting system)
A postmarketing surveillance system operated by the FDA and CDC that collects information on adverse events that occur after immunization.
REACT
An acronym related to a specific process or strategy.
Human failure
An error generated by failure that occurs at an individual level.
Right of refusal
The ability of a patient or pharmacist to decline to participate in certain procedures or treatments.
SPEAK UP
An acronym for advice for hospital patients to get the safest, best healthcare, promoted by the Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
VERP (vaccine error reporting program)
A program designed to allow healthcare professionals to report vaccine errors directly to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).
MEdWatch
A voluntary program by the FDA that allows any healthcare professional or consumer to report a serious adverse event associated with the use of any drug, biological device, or dietary supplement.
Incomplete information
Occurs when full information is not available because the patient was not asked sufficient or proper questions, or the answers were somehow not recorded in the profile, or the patient withheld information deliberately or by accident of memory.