Does UVa take steps to reduce look-alike and sound-alike medication errors?
Yes. UVa pharmacists routinely review medications on the formulary for sound-alike names and look-alike labeling. In addition, pharmacy staff keeps medications that are at high risk for being confused with one another in separate locations, uses special packaging to alert hospital staff to the potential risk of easily confused medications, as well as to medications that are generally more lethal, uses only standardized abbreviations and dose designations, and attaches different color auxiliary labels to point out certain high risk medications.
