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M E D
S A F E T Y
Lessons in Medication Labeling
Delivering the right dose
at the right time starts
with knowing which drug
you're dealing with.
Richard Novak, MD | Palo Alto, Calif.
----------------------------- STICKER STOCK Pre-printed, color-coded labels are easy to read and apply.
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Anesthesia providers are surgery's solo pilots. They decide which drugs to inject without consulting another member of the surgical team. Busy providers might care for 700 patients over the course of a year, delivering 10 different drugs per case. If their careers span a quarter century, they'll administer
175,000 medications. Anyone with a basic understanding of odds and an appreciation of the human condition will realize that you can't fully eliminate medication errors. But we can limit the risks, which starts with properly labeling
all medications.
