I struck a crucial real-world blow for SI this week. Here is how.
We lost the Mars Orbiter due to having two sets of measurement units. in
my example, we may yet lose human lives because of WOMBAT.
On the patient intake form at my hospital, there is a field which is
labeled "WEIGHT" followed by a blank space, and then, two checkboxes,
one for LB and one for KG, so the nurse is supposed to indicate which
units she is documenting, pounds or kilograms. If the number inserted in
the box is, let's say, 125, and the neither box is checked to indicate
the units, then the person using the number has a perilous guess to
make: the patient is either 125 kg (if the number represents the mass in
kg) or 57 kg (if the number represents the weight in pounds).
ALL medication orders based on mass are in milligrams per kilogram of
body mass, and usually, these doses are for tricky drugs (cardiac drugs
especially). Now, if the person calculating the dose assumes that the
125 is kg, and guesses WRONG, then the patient would receive a double
dose!!! (No, I don't guess. If no box is checked, I always call the ward
to find out for certain what units are meant).
My chief pharmacist is also on the forms commitee, so I went to her this
week and asked if, to eschew future obfuscation, the committee could
get the dual units removed, and the form changed to ask for mass in
kilograms ONLY and height in centimeters ONLY. So, my request is on the
way to the forms committee. I'll let y'all know if the form is revised.
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"No one from the Audubon Society has yet documented the
finding of a modified barium swallow."
--Byrd Ona Wyng, Forensic Ornithologist
"Free Billy Rubin!" ---Medical Technologists' protest cry
