Over the past decade, The Joint Commission has highlighted the patient safety dangers associated with the use of certain abbreviations.
The accreditor issued a Sentinel Event Alert on them in 2001. In 2002, The Joint Commission's board of commissioners approved a National Patient Safety Goal requiring its accredited organizations to develop and implement a list of abbreviations not to use. In 2004, The Joint Commission generated its own "do not use" list of abbreviations as part of that NPSG.
Last year, the NPSG was integrated into The Joint Commission's Information Management standards.
To download The Joint Commissions office "do not use" abbreviations list, and learn about the potential problems with these abbreviations and what your organization might want to consider using instead, click here (pdf).
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