EHPLE Pharmacy common mistakes
EHPLE Pharmacy · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Equating greater potency with greater maximal benefit.
Potency and efficacy describe different properties and do not determine individual suitability alone.
What to do instead
Identify the defined response, maximal effect, clinical objective and relevant patient risks.
Treating apparent distribution volume as a literal body compartment.
It is a relationship between amount and concentration under a model.
What to do instead
Write the model and units and interpret the value without inventing an anatomical container.
Crushing a modified-release tablet because it has a familiar shape.
Manipulation can alter the intended release and safety characteristics.
What to do instead
Check the exact product instructions and obtain an appropriate qualified alternative assessment.
Retesting until a passing value appears and discarding the earlier failure.
That approach loses evidence and does not establish why the result failed.
What to do instead
Preserve the original data and conduct a documented method and quality investigation.
Treating an unsuitable sample result as an unquestionable patient measurement.
Collection contamination and handling can change values before analysis.
What to do instead
Assess sample integrity, the patient and the appropriate confirmation or urgent communication pathway together.
Calling an adverse effect, intolerance and allergy the same thing.
These terms have different implications and a temporal association does not always establish causation.
What to do instead
Clarify the actual reaction, severity, timing and evidence and coordinate appropriate clinical assessment.
Copying an old medicine list unchanged across a transition.
The list can contain intended changes, omissions, duplication or inaccurate patient use.
What to do instead
Reconcile with a reliable history, investigate discrepancies and communicate the current agreed plan.
Reporting a relative risk reduction as an absolute percentage-point benefit.
The calculations use different operations and communicate different aspects of an effect.
What to do instead
State the risks, time frame and formula and distinguish relative from absolute measures.
Importing a foreign controlled-drug deadline into the local qualification.
Similar pharmacy titles do not establish identical national law or professional authority.
What to do instead
Use current actual local sources and leave unsupported administration unspecified.