A Canadian reminder about unsafe medication abbreviations

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada has issued a reminder about potentially unsafe medication abbreviations. Reading the document, it is clear that there are many ways for some commonly encountered abbreviations to be misinterpreted with potentially catastrophic consequences. Examples include well-intended but potentially disastrous practices such as using SL to denote sublingual administration (subject to hand-writing, easily misinterpreted as as SC, subcutaneous), and using D to denote “days,” which can also be interpreted as “doses.” The reminder bulletin is published at the ISMPC site.