Abstract
Clinicians and patients often confuse drug names that sound alike. We conducted auditory perception experiments in the United States to assess the impact of similarity, familiarity, background noise and other factors on clinicians' (physicians, family pharmacists, nurses) and laypersons' ability to identify spoken drug names. We found that accuracy increased significantly as the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio increased, as subjective familiarity with the name increased and as the national prescribing frequency of the name increased. For clinicians only, similarity to other drug names reduced identification accuracy, especially when the neighboring names were frequently prescribed. When one name was substituted for another, the substituted name was almost always a more frequently prescribed drug. Objectively measurable properties of drug names can be used to predict confusability. The magnitude of the noise and familiarity effects suggests that they may be important targets for intervention. We conclude that the ability of clinicians and lay people to identify spoken drug names is influenced by signal-to-noise ratio, subjective familiarity, prescribing frequency, and the similarity neighborhoods of drug names.
Highlights
In clinical medicine, the risks of misinterpretation of telephone orders are widely recognized (Koczmara, Jelincic, & Perri, 2006; Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, 2006; The Joint Commission, 2008)
Frequency‐weighted neighborhood probability (FWNP) and word length were associated with increased accuracy
The ability to accurately identify spoken drug names is influenced by signal‐to‐noise ratio, subjective familiarity, prescribing frequency, and the similarity neighborhoods of drug names
Summary
The risks of misinterpretation of telephone orders are widely recognized (Koczmara, Jelincic, & Perri, 2006; Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, 2006; The Joint Commission, 2008). The use of the telephone to communicate medication orders leads to error because of both ambient noise and the limited bandwidth of most telephones (Aronson, 2004; Hoffman & Proulx, 2003; Lambert, 2008; Rodman, 2003; Wiener, Liu, Nelson, & Hoffman, 2004). There are 3.8 billion prescriptions dispensed in outpatient pharmacies annually in the United States (IMS Health, 2008). Telephone orders account for 3‐4% of retail prescription volume. This translates to 114 million telephone prescriptions annually, or 312,000 per day. One study of 813 telephone orders to two chain pharmacies found that the wrong medication name was transcribed in 1.4% of the orders (Camp, Hailemeskel, & Rogers, 2003). The 1.4% rate may not be a generalizable estimate, but given the number of opportunities, even a very low error rate would translate into a large number of errors
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
