ISMP Medication Error Prevention 3

Question 1

Which ISMP tool helps organizations assess their medication safety practices against best-practice benchmarks?

Accepted Answer

ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment (MSSA)

Answer

The ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment allows facilities to benchmark their practices against ISMP best practices and identify improvement priorities.

Question 2

The 'five rights' of medication administration (right patient, drug, dose, route, time) are considered by ISMP to be:

Accepted Answer

Necessary but not sufficient without systems-based safeguards

Answer

ISMP acknowledges the five rights as important checkpoints but emphasizes that system-level safeguards are also essential because humans cannot maintain perfect vigilance.

Question 3

According to ISMP, which category of staff is most often involved in catching medication errors before they reach patients?

Accepted Answer

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians

Answer

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are a critical last line of defense, intercepting errors through order review and dispensing verification processes.

Question 4

ISMP recommends avoiding the use of trailing zeros (e.g., 1.0 mg) in medication orders because:

Accepted Answer

The decimal point may be missed, causing a tenfold overdose

Answer

A trailing zero like '1.0 mg' can be misread as '10 mg' if the decimal point is overlooked, resulting in a tenfold overdose.

Question 5

Smart infusion pumps with drug libraries contribute to medication error prevention by:

Accepted Answer

Alerting nurses when a programmed dose is outside safe limits

Answer

Smart pumps with dose-error reduction software alert nurses when entered doses exceed safe limits defined in the drug library, acting as a final safety check.

ISMP - Institute for Safe Medication Practices Practice Test

ISMP - Institute for Safe Medication Practices Practice Test

ISMP Medication Error Prevention 3