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Drug Name Confusion

A drug name confusion is a type of medication error that occurs when two drug names that look or sound alike are confused with one another. Drug name confusions are a sub-type of wrong drug errors. A wrong drug error occurs whenever a patient receives a drug other than the one that was intended. Drug name confusions are a common cause of wrong drug errors, but there are other causes, such as menu-selection errors or similarities in labeling, packaging, or storage location. Drug name confusions can and do occur any stage of the drug use process: prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices have published lists of drug names that have been confused or may be vulnerable to confusion.