Medical Abbreviations

• The accumulation of blood within the cranium, due either to head trauma or flaws in the cerebral vasculature

In the health care system, there are a lot of codes that help diagnose, treat, and discharge patients daily. Codes help nurses

According to a cross-sectional study involving 237 nurses, approximately 65% of the nurses have made medication error. Only 31% of the participants reported medication errors. According to the study the most common type of reported errors were wrong dosage and infusion rate. The most common causes were using abbreviations of the drugs and similar names of the drugs. However, the study did not find any relationship between medication years and years of experience, age, and working shift. Yet study found association between intravenous injection and gender (Cheragi at al

Medical terminology has a long and rich history that evolved in great measure from the Latin and Greek languages. “It is estimated that about three-fourths of our medical terminology is of Greek origin.”(Banay) “Latin accounts for the majority of root words in the English language.” (Fallon).

There are two prohibited abbreviations that are tracked, “cc” and “qd”, as they are the most common. Throughout the year there has not been consistent improvement in the area. The trending data shows some improvement in parts of the year and then some months, April and September, to have increased spikes of use of prohibited abbreviations. During the PPR it was noted that the following departments were non-compliant concerning using prohibited abbreviations: 3E, 4E, ICU, and Telemetry. The

CYANOTIC: A patient who has cyanosis, or a slight bluish discoloration of the skin due to the presence of abnormal amounts of reduced hemoglobin in the blood

In my paper I will be discussing what medical terminology is, where it came from, and how it is applied to medical assistant careers as well as how it is applied to medical administration careers. I will give examples of the importance of medical terminology and specific examples of where medical careers use medical terminology on a day to day basis. I will also give a brief summary and definition of what medical terminology stands for. After reading my paper you should have a good concept of medical terminology’s importance, use, and why medical terminology is not just applied to medical assisting jobs but also why it is important for medical administration employees to also be familiar and have a good grasp on medical terminology.

The hospital as an entity has made available to staff the list of prohibited abbreviations by having a written document to demonstrate to staff what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to use. However, it appears that some staff are still using some unacceptable abbreviations as shown in the NPSG 2 chart at 99.6%. Continuous use of unacceptable abbreviations means that the hospital will continue to see more errors as these abbreviations would be misread/misinterpreted therefore wrong medications or wrong treatments would be provided to patients.

From an organizational level, plain language can be used as a strategy in hospitals or health system because when a health care provider is speaking to a patient, they should use words that are easy to understand. It is very easy and harmful to make medical mistakes when both parties cannot communicate on the same level. Replacing complex terms such as myocardial infarction to heart disease can help the patient understand the term more. Another example would be replacing the term “angina pectoris” to “chest pain.” Changing medical terms will

If formal communication is not used in the correct environment, misunderstanding may occur, causing danger to somebody’s health. Appropriate language must also be used; Professional references, proper English without slang and clear consistent wording.

The Joint Commission is a not-for –profit organization. It’s a private nongovernmental program that is purposed for improving the quality of health care. The Joint Commission accredits more than 21,000 health care organizations in the United States. This document has created a standard and national patient safety goal in which health care providers must comply. A list was created do to the fact that many error has been made throughout the medical system. The Joint Commission brought forth, which is known as the do-not-use-list. This list contain many errors of words been misuse when it comes down to the medical field. When dealing with medication it’s very easy to make a mistake by a hand written prescription cause by rush handing writing

The Joint Commission created the “Do Not Use’ to avoid medication errors. Medication errors were caused by a variety of things including miscommunication between the prescribers and Pharmacists in the form of misunderstood or illegible abbreviations. I think this was a very smart move by the

A medical setting in which a patient feels safe and secure is more likely to create the conditions in which optimal outcomes can be achieved. Part of helping to ensure a patient feels secure is addressing the communication barriers between the provider and the patient. Some of these barriers arise from the use of professional jargon. Surgeons, Physicians, Nurses, etc. work at a fast pace to make sure that every patient is attended to. As this is their profession, medical jargon is used frequently when communicating to each other, figuring out a diagnosis, and coming up with a treatment plan for the patient. But this medical jargon creates a barrier between the healthcare professional and the patient. There can be misunderstandings between the patient and the professional when it comes to diagnoses and treatment plans due to the communication barrier. The professionals commonly use medical terminology to inform the patient of their status and a patient may simply nod their head to be polite. This nod does not necessarily mean that there is a mutual understanding, it could potentially mean that they are overwhelmed and don’t know how else to act in response to long confusing words being directed at them. This is dangerous because a patient could leave the facility not knowing how to appropriately take care of themselves after their procedure/diagnosis. Medical jargon has the potential to cause the patient and medical professional relationship to be both broken and

Medication error is one of the biggest problems in the healthcare field. Patients are dying due to wrong drug or dosage. Medication error is any preventable incident that leads to inappropriate medication use or harms the patient while the medication is in the control of the health care professional,or patient (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). It is estimated about 44,000 inpatients die each year in the United States due to medication errors which were indeed preventable (Mahmood, Chaudhury, Gaumont & Rust, 2012). There are many factors that contribute to medication error. However, the most common that factors are human factors, right patient information, miscommunication of abbreviations, wrong dosage. Healthcare providers do not intend to make medication errors, but they happen anyways. Therefore, nursing should play a tremendous role to reduce medication error

PM2.5 (Particulate matter 2.5 = Particulate matter 2.5 micro-meters or less), PPM (Parts-Per-Million), CO2 (Carbon dioxide, one carbon molecule with 2 oxygen molecules), CO (Carbon monoxide, one carbon molecule and one oxygen), Contaminants (Pollution), Organic Contaminants (e.g. organic gases such as methane or microbial life such as viruses, mould (Fungi), bacteria or parasites), Concentrated (high proportion relative to other substances, dense, high purity or amount of a substance), Accumulative (gathering or growing by gradual increases), stimuli (a thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue), Memory Disturbance (memory recollection, difficulty in recalling information or event), VGS (Vent gas scrubber), ACU (Air Conditioning Unit), MIC (Methyl isocyanate), HE (Helium).