Medication Errors : Significance of Accurate Patient Weights

Patient information helps practitioners select appropriate medications, doses, and routes of administration. One vital piece of patient-specific information, the patient weight, is especially important because it is often used to calculate the appropriate dose of a medication (e.g., mg/kg, mcg/ kg, mg/m). A prescribed medication dose can differ significantly from the appropriate dose as a result of missing or inaccurate patient weights.

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