Ask questions!

According to The New York Times article, "To Protect Against Drug Errors, Ask Questions", medication errors account for 1.5MILLION injuries or deaths each year.

This is outrageous!

And… there has been little improvement since a report was first released in 1999 spotlighting these errors.

Imagine… walking into the pharmacy to get a refill of your daily medication. You check your filled prescriptions but the color of the pills is not the same. You even received fewer pills than you normally receive. When you ask the pharmacist, s/he says it fine and sends you on your merry way. This is the first story in this article. Unfortunately, the pills you received were for chemotherapy which lowers your immune system (The pills you were originally supposed to get were for your glaucoma). How can a mistake like this happen? (This is more a case of negligence, if you ask us).

When you pick up your prescriptions, how many of you ask the pharmacist questions about the medication? We all have a right to ask questions--- and not be rushed into leaving. There have been many times when we've gone to the pharmacy pick-up window, been given our bag of prescriptions without any instructions, etc, and have been told to sign a piece of paper with the box stating we've received all the pertinent information for the prescription already checked.

Why the rush? Don't we have a right to ask as many questions as we want? After all, you don't want to be a part of the 1.5M injuries/deaths caused by medication errors.

The point is--- you need to be very careful… and ask as many questions as you can/want. The writer of the article also points out several other tips:

• Know which medications you’re taking and what they interact with other medications you may be taking/will take.
• Make sure you know the name of the drug your doctor is prescribing before you leave his/her office. Also make sure you know when you’re supposed to be taking it, how often, etc. A doctor’s handwriting is usually illegible on the prescription.
• Maintain a list of all the drugs you take—prescription, non-prescription, etc.
• Make sure you take note of any prescription that may give you an allergic reaction.
• Make sure you know why you are being prescribed the drug. What are adverse side effects?
• "When picking up the prescription, check the name and dosing schedule against what the doctor told you. If the labels are too small to read, bring a magnifying glass or ask the pharmacist or someone with better vision to read it to you."
• Ask questions… of your pharmacist! Don't sign anything before all your questions are fully answered.
• If you are too sick to take all the information in, make sure you have someone else with you who will understand all the information.
  

Again… just ask questions!