When it comes to using prescription medicine safely, there are a few rules to follow. Always ask why you are taking the drug, when to take it and for how long. Ask whether it will interact with any other medications you are on, and find out if there are any reactions that are serious enough to trigger a call to the doctor. Above all, though, make sure you get the correct prescription at the pharmacy. It is possible for the drugstore to make a mistake in dispensing!
Could There Be a Mistake in the Prescription You Are Given?
Q. I am a pharmacist who catches medical errors on a daily basis. The stats on pharmacy mistakes are frightening.
Hiring uneducated technicians for pharmacies is incredibly dangerous. I catch three or four errors per day and report them, only to be chided by my manager. I’m made to feel terrible about caring if our patients are getting the correct medication or not.
Errors are not only coming from physicians and other prescribers. Patients need to be mindful of medications when they receive them and verify the correct medicine is inside the bottle.
I am diligent, but if I weren’t here, would someone else be as careful catching a mistake made by a pharmacy tech?
Pharmacy Errors Appear to Be Common:
A. A 2009 study found an error in one in every five prescriptions filled in pharmacies (Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Mar.-Apr., 2009). We urge readers to follow your good advice and always check prescriptions before leaving the pharmacy counter. Once you leave the store you will not be able to turn the medicine back in.
Sometimes the dose or the directions are wrong. Occasionally, the pharmacist or the pharmacy tech might confuse the drug with one that has a similar name. You could even get a medicine that was intended for another patient by mistake. That’s why it makes sense to be well-informed about what drug you are supposed to be taking. Using the wrong medication won’t help your condition and could be extremely dangerous.
Are Your Concerns Dismissed?
A reader recently wrote:
Q. I’ve made it my practice to check my prescriptions at the pharmacy counter before I pay. Because you’ve recommended this, you may want to know my requests are always met with disdain, regardless of the pharmacy chain or location.
The feeling I am left with is that my request has no merit and only serves to slow down the transaction. Is this precaution so unusual?
A. Your request to double-check your prescription before leaving the pharmacy counter is neither unusual nor inappropriate. In fact, we encourage everyone to do this.
Most people count their money before leaving an ATM machine or a bank window. They should be as careful with their medicine as they are with their money.
In our book about medical errors, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, we included chapters on avoiding pharmacy mistakes as well as things patients should not do.
Do your friends and family always check to verify that their medicine is correct? You may want to send them this article to remind them double checking is always good policy! Thank you for supporting our work.
