Hurried handwriting can turn a 2 into a Z, so that a patient prescribed HCf 250 mg. 50 mg.-hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic. Almost 7,000 patients a year die as a result of medication errors, according to a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Scribbled instructions are just part of the problem. Celexa, an antidepressant, and Celebrex, prescribed for arthritis.
Dosages can be incorrect, as when a child is given medication in an adult strength.
A drug can be administered in the wrong way, for instance, injected full-strength instead of after appropriate dilution. Or the equipment used to administer drugs can be misused. These errors are preventable, and that is why Temple's School of Pharmacy this fall initiated the Certificate Program in Medication Safety and Adverse Drug Prevention, the first program of its kind. The optional program consists of four courses taken during the last two years of professional study leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree. D., chair of the Pharmacy Practice Department.