Quantity & QuantityUnitOfMeasure

quantity & quantityunitofmeasure best practices enter accurate quantity and quantityunitofmeasure values ✅ quality checks enter accurate and quantityunitofmeasure values an electronic transaction requires end users to communicate the specific quantity of the prescribed product to be dispensed, along with its corresponding qualifier the ncpdp script standard uses the quantityunitofmeasure field to qualify the quantity of medication to be dispensed this field uses the national cancer institute thesaurus (ncit) code subset for quantity unit of measure enter a correct, numerical value into the quantity field that does not conflict with the dayssupply and sigtext fields furthermore, ensure that the quantityunitofmeasure field is correctly associated with the drug product entered in the drugdescription or drug identifier field regularly check the most recently published quantity unit of measure code set (at least monthly) and continuously create new mappings to any newly published quantity unit of measure codes when available, use the most specific metric quantity unit of measure code to qualify the dispense quantity of the prescribed product the quantity unit of measure code (quom) value of “c38046 (unspecified)” is only to be used when a quantity qualifier value is not available for use in the version of the ncit codes the quantity unit of measure code “c64933 (each)” is only to be used for products that are not measured in volume or weight and can only be expressed in units of one/each, such as canes, wheelchairs, various braces or orthotics and other dme supplies some non drugs such as diabetic test strips, lancets, needles, and devices have specific quantity unit of measure codes that are to be used at all times with the appropriate quantity values example a 100 ml bottle of amoxicillin 400 mg/5 ml oral suspension with the ndc “00093416173” and rxcui of “308189” would use “#100” and “c28254 (millimeter)” as the quantity and quantity qualifier, respectively this further confirms exactly which bottle size to dispense instead of “#1” and “c38046 (unspecified)” or “c64933 (each)” clinical relevance/rationale it is important to transmit and receive accurate quantity and quantity qualifier information for the following reasons patient safety ambiguity or discrepancies in any of the fields can result in patient harm or reduced efficacy patient expense additional and/or unnecessary patient expense can occur if the desired quantity is unspecified or ambiguous to the pharmacist, who may as a result, face auditing difficulties related to reimbursement workflow disruptions additional call backs from the pharmacy to the prescriber’s office to clarify the quantity appropriate for the patient can be avoided best practices for drug compendia provide guidance for displaying unit of use packaging to e prescribing system vendors so the metric decimal quantity and the quantity qualifier description are displayed to the prescriber when creating an e prescription for drugs/items that are measured in volume (ml) or weight/mass (gm) and are dispensed in unit of use packaging, ensure the prescription metric decimal quantity options displayed to the prescriber represent what is commercially available from the pharmaceutical company for the drug/item prescribed (e g , eye drops – 5 ml, 10 ml, or 15 ml) provide the quantity and quantity unit of measure description along with the package information to technology providers to display to the end users to help guide their selection best practices for technology partners once the end user has identified the specific drug and drug dosage being prescribed, ensure the system displays a list of appropriate quantities and quantity qualifiers (e g , the commercially available package sizes and quantities for the prescribed product)