Joint Commission & Laboratory Abbreviations

The Joint Commission is a nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies healthcare providers and organizations in the United States. The objective of the Joint Commission is to increase patient safety by helping organizations implement quality healthcare programs. The Joint Commission issued an alert in 2001 regarding medical abbreviations for use in all medical settings, including laboratories. This alert and the concerns regarding patient safety led to a number of measures about abbreviations with the purpose of eliminating confusion leading to costly mistakes.

Taking Action After the Alert

• After the issue of the alert, one year later the board of the Joint Commission agreed to require all organizations accredited through the Joint Commission to compile and use a "Do Not Use" list of abbreviations. In 2004, the Joint Commission took this one step further and published its own list and required accredited organizations to use it.

The "Do Not Use" List

• The "Do Not Use" list is not an extensive list in its current state. Abbreviations not recommend for use in the healthcare environment include "U" (write out "Unit" instead), "IU" (write "International Unit" instead), as examples. The Joint Commission publishes the complete list on its website for review.

Healthcare Provider Feedback

• Feedback among healthcare providers is mostly positive, reports the Joint Commission. At the National Summit on Medical Abbreviations in 2004, the summit supported the resolution. Thereafter, the Joint commission published the result of the summit on its website, where 80 percent of the respondents reported favoring the "Do Not Use" list. The only contention revolved around possible future inclusions.

Possible Future Inclusions

• In the future, the Joint Commission may update the list to include the use of abbreviations for the "greater than" and "less than" symbols and abbreviations used for all pharmaceutical names, apothecary units and a few other purposes. Also under consideration is whether to extend the requirements of the "Do Not Use" list to preprogrammed health-information technology systems, such as electronic medical records.