Table 2.

Examples of procedural and legal prescribing errors identified

Error type	Medication order	Description of error
Incomplete order	Oxycodone 5–10 mg orally when required, up to a maximum dose of 20 mg	Frequency omitted from order
Incomplete order	Morphine 2.5 mg subcutaneously every 4 hours when required	Maximum daily dose omitted from order
Unclear order	Heparin 5000 units subcutaneously twice daily	Abbreviation ‘SC’ used to indicate route, but this was unclear and looked like ‘SL’
Unapproved abbreviation	Simvastatin 40 mg orally at night	Abbreviation ‘on’ used to indicate at night