Tall man lettering application in medication information systems as a quality and safety strategy in hospital organization.

ABSTRACT

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: The technique of highlighted capital letters, Tall Man lettering, is a tool that allows differentiating the names of similar drugs in a way that contributes to reduce medication errors related to the drug identification. The objective was to implement and monitor the application protocol of the Tall Man lettering tool in drug information systems in the healthcare environment to improve the quality of care and patient safety in the pharmacy service and the medical institution. METHODS: Scope Tertiary general hospital with 1000 beds in which a Tall Man lettering application protocol was approved in the pharmacy service information systems. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. PERIOD 2019-2021. POPULATION Information systems and databases used in the pharmacy service. Working group Made up of people in charge of information areas and systems. IMPLEMENTATION Five phases were defined organization of the working group, selection of drug names and information systems, establishment of actions, their execution, and results monitoring. VARIABLES Number of pharmaceutical specialties, names of active ingredient and brands incorporated in the information systems. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The application of Tall Man lettering was authorized in 13/13 information systems, six have been fully implemented and seven are in the database update phase. Of the implanted systems, a total of 210 drug names have been modified (168/210 active ingredient and 42/210 brand names), corresponding to 659 pharmaceutical specialties. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: The application of Tall Man lettering in hospital information systems is a tool for improving the quality of the pharmacy service and guarantees the safety of medicines in the hospital.