Patient Safety & Quality AssuranceQuestion 66 of 100
A patient's profile lists busPIRone 10 mg three times daily, but the bottle a technician pulled from the shelf is buPROPion 100 mg. Why was this error likely, and what would have prevented it?
a.The two drugs belong to the same therapeutic class; checking the class would have prevented it
b.The two drugs share a labeler code; comparing manufacturers would have prevented it
c.The two drugs have identical strengths; comparing strengths would have prevented it
d.The two names look and sound alike; scanning the barcode and reading the full name with its TALL man lettering before counting would have prevented it
Explanation
busPIRone and buPROPion share their first three letters and a similar rhythm, which is why they appear on look-alike/sound-alike lists; a barcode scan plus a deliberate reading of the capitalized portion catches the substitution before any tablets are counted. They are not in the same therapeutic class, they do not necessarily come from the same labeler, and their strengths in this scenario are 10 mg and 100 mg rather than identical.
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