Can the Metric System Help Reduce Medication Errors?

When I was a young boy going to Elementary school in the 1960’s and again in High School in the 1970’s, we were told to learn the metric system because world adoption of the Metric System was imminent. It might finally be time to learn. That’s because a number of trusted institutions have advocated the use of metric measurements for medications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics the Food and Drug Administration and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices have all suggested metric measurements for dosages, and a new study published in Pediatrics backs up the argument with some interesting facts.

Understanding the problem

Liquid medications – especially those for children – often come with dosing instructions for teaspoons or tablespoons. What the study uncovered is that not every parent has the same idea of what a teaspoon-sized amount is. A number of these parents were using actual teaspoons as opposed to the standard teaspoon we associate with cooking; thus, how much (or how little) medication made it into the sick child if not uniform. The study also found that parents who spoke primarily Spanish had a harder time understanding the instructions, and thus were more likely to make dosage mistakes.

Why do we use the metric system in medicine?

By switching the standard of measurement to the metric system, there would be less room for errors: 2 milliliters is always 2 milliliters, regardless of what language you speak. The study claims that almost 31% of parents who used a teaspoon gave their children the wrong dosage amount; parents who used milliliters made dosage errors only about 1% of the time.

Switching to Metrics may not solve the problem

While the new study shows that switching to a metric system should be obvious, its argument may be fallacious. In 2008, the CDC issued a report on the instruments used, and seemed to imply that the dosage errors came not from the system of measurement, but from the way the medications were administered. In the report, the CDC contends that the highest medication errors were made when using dosage cups, as opposed to spoons, syringes or droppers. In this experimental study, the CDC used a metric system of measurement in all cases.

In the end, what matters most is getting parents the right tools and the right instructions for how to administer medicine. Reducing medication errors, in any system of measurements, is a worthwhile goal.

To learn more about medication errors, or to discover a full list of our services, we invite you to browse our medical malpractice section. You can find additional information about our work on behalf of Maryland injury victims, as well as a more in-depth analysis of the effects of medication and prescription errors.