This is a list of abbreviations used in
medical prescriptions, including hospital orders (the patient-directed part of which is referred to as sig codes). This list does not include abbreviations for pharmaceuticals or drug name suffixes such as CD, CR, ER, XT (See ' for those).
Capitalisation and the use of
full stops
The full stop (Commonwealth English), period (North American English), or full point , is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclamation ...
are a matter of
style. In the list, abbreviations in English are capitalized whereas those in Latin are not.
These abbreviations can be verified in
reference works, both recent
and older.
Some of those works (such as Wyeth 1901
) are so comprehensive that their entire content cannot be reproduced here. This list includes all that are frequently encountered in today's
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
in
English-speaking
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
regions.
Some of these are obsolete; others remain current.
Abbreviations which are
deprecated by the
Joint Commission are marked in red. Those abbreviations which are deprecated by other organizations, such as the
Institute for Safe Medication Practices
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is an American 501(c)(3) organization focusing on the prevention of medication errors and promoting safe medication practices. It is affiliated with the ECRI Institute
ECRI (originally founded ...
(ISMP) and the
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016.
The AMA's state ...
(AMA), are marked in orange.
The Joint Commission is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization which offers
accreditation to hospitals and other health care organizations in the United States. While their recommendations are not binding on U.S. physicians, they are required of organizations who wish accreditation by the Joint Commission.
__TOC__
Table
Currently discouraged practices
* Abbreviating names of
drugs
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...
* Using
apothecary's units
* Using
trailing zeros or not using a
leading zero
A leading zero is any 0 digit that comes before the first nonzero digit in a number string in positional notation.. For example, James Bond's famous identifier, 007, has two leading zeros. Any zeroes appearing to the left of the first non-zero d ...
See also
*
List of medical abbreviations
Abbreviations are used very frequently in medicine. They boost efficiency as long as they are used intelligently. The advantages of brevity should be weighed against the possibilities of obfuscation (making the communication harder for others ...
References
External links
*
{{MedAbbrev
Prescriptions