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Medication errors may lead to inappropriate medication use or cause a patient harm. Unfortunately, this is more common than one may think, but it is preventable.
According to CNBC, medical errors are the third most common cause of death in America today. A significant portion are medication errors, where the patient is given the incorrect medication or the incorrect dose of a drug. When this happens, it is referred to as an adverse drug event (ADE).
An ADE can be mild, such as when a patient experiences nausea, or can be extremely serious.
Preventing Medication Errors
In either case, medication errors leading to the ADE presents an increased risk to the patient, which is never desirable.
That’s why organizations like pharmacies, hospitals, the FDA, and the World Health Organization (WHO) constantly work to find new ways to eliminate medication errors from happening.
As a patient, you have a role to play in preventing medication errors, too.
Here’s how you can take control over your own treatment.
1. Understand the Prescription Process
Knowing how prescriptions are written, checked, and processed can greatly help you understand when to ask questions or spot a potential mistake.
While every state is a little bit different, in most cases, multiple people review a prescription before it ever reaches the patient. This is usually effective in preventing mistakes, but for whatever reason, failures can and do rarely occur.
Awareness is key!
– Step 1:
First, let’s talk about what happens when you are prescribed medication, from the moment you’re sitting in the doctor’s office to the pharmacy.
Your doctor interviews you, finds out what’s wrong, makes a diagnosis, and writes out a prescription or enters it into a computer.
– Step 2:
Next, you bring the prescription to the pharmacy, where an assistant or technician enters it into their system. The system then cross-examines the details to verify or exclude whether contraindications or issues of compatibility occur.
This is especially critical if you take other medications or have more than one condition.
A technician or pharmacist creates the prescription, measuring, weighing, or counting out the right dose at least once (often twice). This extra safety measure prevents accidental miscounts.
– Step 3:
Finally, the pharmacist reviews the prescription, dose, and medication with you, the patient, to ensure it is the best fit for your needs. If at any point a problem is identified, the pharmacist serves as a “safety check” to ensure it is corrected.
In the next few sections, you’ll learn a few of the best ways to take action and prevent a mistake from the doctor’s office to the moment you exit the pharmacy.
2. Always Ask Your Doctor for Clarification
Being proactive about medication errors starts in the doctor’s office. If your doctor prescribes or suggests a medicine, don’t be afraid to ask questions to better understand what it is and why he or she chose that specific drug.
Try asking:
- Is this a brand or generic?
- What’s the name of the medication?
- How will this drug help me?
- How long does it take to work?
- What dose of medication should I take?
- Should I take this long-term or short-term?
- What do I do if I forget to take my medicine?
- What do I do if I accidentally take too much?
- Is this drug okay to take with the other medicines I’m taking?
- Is this drug contraindicated with any foods or drinks (such as alcohol)?
- What side effects are associated with this drug? How can I reduce them?
Knowledge is power. Knowing what you’re taking, and why, can help you identify when a prescription choice isn’t right (such as if you’re allergic to a drug).
3. Update Your Health Information Regularly
Doctors and pharmacists cannot keep you safe if you don’t provide them with updated information regularly.
If anything changes in your health picture, such as a new medication prescribed by a different doctor or a recent allergic reaction, let them know so they can update your chart.
The same is true for:
- New symptoms
- Newly diagnosed conditions
- Use of street drugs or alcohol
Feeling shameful about telling your doctor or pharmacist you drink or use drugs like marijuana? Don’t be.
Your care team doesn’t want to judge you, nor are they there to report you to the law. They only want to help you stay safe, as some drugs may interact badly with alcohol and drugs.
This tip is especially important if you use a pharmacy who may not have a medication system that links to other previously used pharmacies.
Without seeing your full medication list, they can’t accurately check for potential issues and clashes.
4. Ask for Patient Counseling
In a situation where a pharmacy is overlooked, patient counseling (when the pharmacist talks to you about your prescription) may inadvertently be overlooked.
But patient counseling is one of the most common times for medication errors to be discovered.
Whether the issue stemmed from a doctor’s illegible writing or an extra “0” typed on the end of a dose, that five-minute review can really help protect you.
It is important to note that patient counseling can be useful for a long list of other reasons, too, so it really benefits you in a multitude of ways.
Pharmacists can also help teach you:
- How to use your medication
- How to combat mild side effects (such as diarrhea or nausea)
- When to call the pharmacy or your doctor if you experience sudden, severe side effects
5. Check the Bag Before You Leave
A significant number of medication errors are discovered only when the patient finally arrives at home. This is often the case when the medication is correct, yet the dose is wrong.
In extremely rare cases, a mixup behind the counter could lead to a patient receiving a prescription meant for someone else, but most pharmacies have protocols in place to prevent this from ever happening.
It’s in your best interest to check the drug or treatment you receive before you leave the pharmacy. This means opening up the bag, looking inside, and verifying important features like:
- The dose format (pill, cream, inhaler, etc.)
- The name of the drug
- The dose of the drug
- The instructions
- The appearance
If at any point, anything seems off, ask the pharmacist to quickly review it again or share your concerns.
While pills may differ in color, shape, or size between various brands, any difference from what you’re used to is a good excuse to review.