Medication Safety & Error Prevention Flashcards
7 cards from real MTM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Medication Safety & Error Prevention flashcards as text
A patient on warfarin is started on fluconazole by their PCP without consulting the pharmacist. Which medication safety process was most likely bypassed?
Answer: Drug-drug interaction screening
Fluconazole significantly inhibits CYP2C9, increasing warfarin levels and bleeding risk — a critical drug-drug interaction that should be screened at dispensing.
Which of the following is the BEST description of a 'near miss' in medication safety terminology?
Answer: An error that was caught before reaching the patient
A near miss (also called a close call) is an error that was intercepted before it reached the patient, representing a key learning opportunity.
An MTM pharmacist identifies that a patient is taking two ACE inhibitors prescribed by different providers. This is an example of which medication-related problem?
Answer: Therapeutic duplication
Therapeutic duplication occurs when two drugs from the same class are prescribed concurrently without clinical justification, increasing toxicity risk.
The ISMP High-Alert Medications list is MOST useful for which safety practice?
Answer: Prioritizing independent double-checks and special safeguards
High-alert medications require additional safeguards such as independent double-checks, special labeling, and restricted access because errors with them are more likely to cause serious harm.
A patient reports they split their extended-release metoprolol succinate tablets because they are too large to swallow. What is the primary safety concern?
Answer: Increased risk of bradycardia from dose dumping
Splitting extended-release tablets destroys the controlled-release mechanism, potentially causing rapid drug release (dose dumping) and excessive beta-blockade including severe bradycardia.
During an MTM session, a patient describes taking their evening dose of a sleep aid in the morning by mistake. Using NCCMERP taxonomy, this error is best classified as:
Answer: Category C — error reached patient, no harm
NCCMERP Category C means an error reached the patient but caused no harm — taking a sleep aid at the wrong time of day is an error with no expected harmful outcome.
Which strategy BEST addresses the risk of sound-alike/look-alike (SALA) drug name errors in written prescriptions?
Answer: Writing the drug's indication on the prescription
Including the drug's indication on the prescription allows the pharmacist or patient to verify the drug name makes sense clinically, reducing SALA confusion errors.