Identifying medications by storage location is risky

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Northerner

Admin (Retired)
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
You?d be surprised how many medication errors involve patients identify their medication based on the overall appearance of the container and where it is usually stored, never actually reading the label. Doing that is a set up for errors.

A man with diabetes mixed up two different insulin products that he takes. He mixed up his long-acting insulin called Lantus and his rapid-acting insulin, Apidra. He stored the insulin vials separately in his refrigerator, normally keeping Lantus in the butter bin and Apidra on one of the main shelves. However, his wife recently cleaned out the refrigerator and accidently switched the two. She put the rapid-acting Apidra in the butter bin and the long-acting Lantus on the main shelf.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...medications-by-storage-location-is-risky.html
 
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