[Histonet] More on medical abbreviations

[MTitford <@t> aol.com]

Brian Llewellyn gives some pointers as to where medical abbreviations can be found.
Here in hospitals in the USA, the JCAHO has a campaign going to abolish some abbreviations in the interests of patient safety. They mainly concern written notes in patients charts but also have applications in the histology lab. Some of the banned abbreviations and their corrections are:
1) instead of 1.0 mg write 1 mg (no trailing zero's)
2) Instead of MgSO4 write magnesium sulphate
3) Instead of .1 mg write 0.1 mg (always use a zero before a decimal point)
Etc
Another thing they recommend is reading back of telephone orders which has applications in histology. For example if a pathologist phones up to request a special stain on a certain block, read back the request to confirm you have recorded the right block, etc.

Mike Titford
USA Pathology
Mobile AL USA