An Internet Check for Medication Errors
A medication error can be deadly. Along the process of having a prescription written to ingesting that medication, there are numerous possible points of error. This has been one of the salient points to having medications processed by electronic means, to eliminate some of the possible mistakes. However, with the numerous drugs available that look alike and sound alike and with a growing senior citizen demographic, mistakes in medication present significant concerns. A web site is attempting to address that issue:
“…Last week, the influential group opened a web-based tool to let consumers and doctors easily check if they’re using or prescribing any of these error-prone drugs, and what they might confuse it with. Try to spell or pronounce a few on the site and it’s easy to see how mistakes can happen. Did you mean the painkiller Celebrex or the antidepressant Celexa?”
link: Web tools keep watch for drug names that look, sound alike
Some dispensaries will give out a print out of the medication, with information of how the drug should be taken and possible side effects. The pharmacist has that information readily available, even if a hard copy is not provided.
Further, it is important to let the physician and the pharmacist know what other medications are being taken. There could be possible medication interactions that are significant. One of the hesitations that people, especially senior citizens, have is that they recognize that the physician and pharmacist are busy and they try not be a bother. However, it is necessary to be pro-active in receiving proper medical care. Asking for the time and asking questions are still means to safeguard against these medication catastrophes.
Catherine Forsythe
Tags: errors, medication, pharmacist, physician, safety, senior citizens, web site
Get SkypePro for free local calls
Here are some other related posted by this author...
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Leave a Reply