Some medications are more likely to be problematic than others and their use can be associated with increased risk. These medications need to be handled with greater care to minimize the chance of an adverse event.
Classes of high risk:
(1) toxic
(2) drug-drug interactions
(3) confusion with other medications
(4) confusion in the dosing unit terminology (when a medication dose can be expressed in more than one way)
Drugs with high risk of toxic effects:
(1) narrow therapeutic range
(2) chemotherapy agents
(3) seriousness of side effects
Confusion with other medications:
(1) similar sounding names
(2) similar looking formulations
(3) similar looking labeling or packaging
Confusion in dosing unit terminology:
(1) more than one way to express dosing units
(2) similar appearing abbreviations
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