Know Your “Rights”
On average, a hospital patient is subject to one medication error a day—from delays in getting medication to an oversight about a drug allergy to mixups with patients and medications. Health care workers—especially nurses—use “The Five Rights” as a standard for safe administration of medication. Elizabeth Bailey, a patient advocate and author of The Patient’s Checklist, suggests that patients and family members also use this simple checklist to make sure medications are always correct:
- The right drug
- The right dose
- The right route (pill, shot, IV, etc.)
- The right schedule
- The right patient—that means you!
