The organisation responsible for improving health services, the Health Quality and Safety Commission, is making it easier for hospitals to write out patient dosages.
The National Medical Chart simplifies information, with a pre-printed decimal point for dosage information.
Questions about the administration of drugs have been raised in the light of the recent death of a woman at North Shore Hospital, a day after she was mistakenly given 10 times the prescribed dose of medication.
The commission's chief executive, Janice Wilson, says international evidence shows having a simple and standardised chart reduces the risk of a mistake.
She says similar charts are used in Australia, England, the United States and Canada.
