March 18, 2015: SafeMedicationUse.ca Newsletter - Beware: Medicine Names May Sound Alike, but the Medicines May Be Very Different
Some medicines have names that look or sound like the names of other medicines, even though their ingredients are very different. Medicines with similar names can have entirely different uses, doses and side effects. Look-alike and sound-alike names of medicines can lead to mistakes that might cause harm. SafeMedicationUse.ca has received a report of a dispensing mistake involving 2 medicines with look-alike/sound-alike names. A 3-year-old girl had her tonsils removed. After the operation, she received a prescription for 6 mg of the pain medicine morphine. The pharmacy accidentally prepared the prescription with hydromorphone instead of morphine. Hydromorphone is another drug that is used to treat pain, but it is much stronger than morphine. Giving the little girl 6 mg of hydromorphone instead of 6 mg of morphine could have led to significant harm or even death. Fortunately, a hospital pharmacist noticed the error when the parents took their child to the hospital for an assessment the next morning, and no harm occurred. Read more...
