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Misunderstanding of the correct medication dose is a common cause of medication errors. Although many organizations recommend that instructions for liquid medications be dispensed using milliliters as the dosing unit, standard dosage units are not currently required. Researchers compared dispensed doses on pharmacy labels at four community pharmacies and corresponding prescriptions from healthcare providers (HCP) for 649 prescriptions for liquid medications for children aged ≤12 years.
Overall, 62% of pharmacy-dispensed labels and 68% of HCP prescriptions were in milliliters, 29% and 24%, respectively, were dosed as teaspoons, and 10% and 1% included both milliliter and teaspoon dosing. Volumetric doses from HCP prescriptions were changed in…