Bar-code scanning at four health care facilities in the u.s.

THE 4 R’S OF MEDICATION SAFETY The goal of hospital administrators is to adhere to the 4 R’s of medication safety: be sure the right dose of the right medication is being given to the right patient at the right time. For years, industry literature has stated that these objectives are often hindered by incompetencies in hospitals, such as order misinterpretations, incomplete or improper transcriptions, communication breakdowns, drug misidentification, faulty dose checking, drug-stocking problems, and lack of standardization.4