Guard against prescription errors

Prescription errors happen all too often, sometimes with tragic results.  Medications can be mislabeled or misfilled.  Patients can be given the right medicine but with the wrong usage directions.  Or they can get the wrong medicines altogether. 

National chains and mail-order pharmacies operate without a strong patient/pharmacist link.  And pharmacists scramble to fill more prescriptions faster than ever before.  To cope, they may shift duties to less trained staff, allowing them to do such things as enter the doctor's handwritten order into a computer. 

These changes can spell trouble.  Studies suggest that up to 10 percent of outpatient hospital pharmacy and 20 percent of retail pharmacy prescriptions are misfilled. 

Adverse drug reactions

Another serious problem involves adverse drug reactions.  It is estimated that 15 percent of all hospital patients suffer such a reaction.  In 1994 alone, nearly 106,000 patients may have died due to such reactions.

So what can you do to protect yourself? 

New prescription errors

When you get a new prescription, ask the nurse or front-office staff to write down the name, strength, and dosage amount.  Then, when you get the prescription filled, before you leave the counter:

• Read the label and compare the information to that received from the doctor's office.

• Review the dosage instructions with the pharmacist.

Don't accept a generic substitution without first checking with your doctor. 

Refill errors

Never assume that a prescription once filled correctly will always be filled correctly.

Check each refill for accuracy.

Do the pills look the same as the original order?

Does the label give the identical dosing instructions?

Develop a personal relationship with your pharmacist. Find a pharmacy you like and stick with it.  Fill all your prescriptions there so the pharmacist can cross-check for drug interactions.

• If you have an emergency prescription filled elsewhere, bring the container to your regular pharmacist the next time you visit, so it can be entered into your file.

Maintain an up-to-date profile of your medical conditions and treatments.

Go during off-hours when the pharmacist can spend more time with you, answering your questions.

Inform your pharmacist when you begin taking a new over-the-counter medicine or herbal remedy.

Above all, when you have questions or concerns, ask!

Keep a complete record of all prescription and non-prescription medications (Our free Medication Record can help with this, or use an IdentiMed System to make the process even easier).  This includes those:

• taken daily

• taken periodically (for allergies, pain, headache, etc.)

• taken in the past

Following these suggestions will involve some work.  However, it is time invested in your well-being.