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 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 (ISMP) and the
American Medical Association (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.
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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
References
External links
*
{{MedAbbrev
Prescriptions