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8. Encourage use of technology to avoid dispensing errors e.g., barcode, printed

Administration

1. Administration should be carried out by authorized healthcare professionals

2. Patient identifiers (like patient name and medical record ) should be used to verify

administration to the right patient

3. Follow the 6 rights of safe drug administration: Right patient, Right drug, Right

dose, Right time, Right route, Right documentation in charts

4. Always compare drug in hand against drug name, strength and route mentioned in
physician’s order before administration

5. In case of any ambiguity, the prescriber should be contacted for clarification before
administering the medicines

6. In case of any changes in orders, effective and immediate communication and
documentation should be assured

7. The practice of double checking or second person verification for dose, route,

dilution etc. can eliminate chances of errors

8. One patient’s drugs (either new or leftover) should not be used for another drug

labels containing patient identification, drug identification and administration

instructions, auxiliary labels etc.

9. Drugs should be dispensed in the most ready-to-use form possible and minimum

number of doses possible (unit dose dispensing: single dose at a time)

10. If a drug is to be prepared before administration, the preparation, calculation and

dilution etc. should be completed in a clean, safe, clutter free area with minimum-

to-no distractions

10.1. The drug should be properly labelled if administration is at a later time

10.2. If a multi-dose vial is used for drug preparation, it should be marked with

date-of-opening, dilution concentration and the personnel’s name &

designation. Such vials should be discarded immediately on expiry date

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