Re: Don't be a victim of pharmacy errors

On 25 oct, 22:34, Jim Higgins <gordian...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Don't be a victim of pharmacy errorshttp://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/25/pharmacy.errors/index.html

(CNN) -- When Chanda Givens found out she was pregnant, she did what
most expectant mothers would do: She went out to fill her prescription
for prenatal vitamins.

When she miscarried within a few weeks of taking the drug, Givens said
it never occurred to her the prescription might be the cause. She later
learned that instead of being given a prescription for Materna, a
prenatal vitamin, she received one for Matulane, a chemotherapy drug
used to treat Hodgkin's disease, according to a lawsuit filed this month
in federal court.

The drug is intended to interfere with cell growth and DNA development,
according to the lawsuit.

Givens said her prescription was filled at a Walgreens pharmacy near her
suburban St. Louis, Missouri, home. Walgreens said it's reached a
resolution with the family and declined further comment.

Every year in the United States, 30 million dispensing errors out of 3
billion prescriptions occur at outpatient pharmacies, according to the
National Patient Safety Foundation. Some errors are minor. Some patients
catch easily. But others can be serious.

"There's been a tremendous increase in fatal pharmacy errors over the
past 20 years," said David Phillips, a sociology professor at the
University of California-San Diego who has studied this issue. "And the
increase is much bigger for outpatient pharmacies than for inpatient
pharmacies."

Why the increase? Phillips said more health care is happening outside
hospitals, putting more of a burden on outpatient pharmacists. Here,
from Phillips and other experts, are ways to avoid becoming a victim:

* Don't get a prescription filled at the beginning of the month.

Phillips' research shows that in the first few days of each month
fatalities due to medication errors rise by as much as 25 percent above
normal. The reason: Social Security checks come at the beginning of the
month.

"Quite a number of people can't afford to get their medicines
until the Social Security check comes in, so at the beginning of the
month they turn up in abnormally large numbers and swamp the
pharmacists," Phillips said. "When pharmacists are busy, they make more
mistakes."

Of course, it's not always possible to wait a week or two to get
a prescription, but Phillips advises to do so if you can.

* Open the bottle at the pharmacy.

Mitch Rothholz, a spokesman for the American Pharmacists
Association, said pharmacy errors aren't common, but that there are
things patients can do to make sure the medicine inside a bottle is the
right drug.

He said opening the bottle right at the pharmacy and showing the
pills to the pharmacist is one safeguard. Another: If it looks different
than the medicine you've taken before, or you have any questions, don't
be afraid to ask the pharmacist.

* Don't be in a rush.

"When picking up drugs, patients want to get in and out quickly,"
said Hedy Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Safe Medication
Practices. "We care if our food has butter or margarine on it. We really
should be much more careful about the medications we put in our mouths."

Cohen said patients should take the time to get detailed
instructions about how to take a drug. Errors happen not just when the
wrong medicine is dispensed, but when the right medicine is taken at the
wrong dosage.

Cohen added that pharmacies can take additional steps, too. For
example, many drug names look alike.

Cohen suggests writing in capital letters the portions of drug
names similar to other medications to make distinctions more clear and
to prevent errors. Commonly confused drugs

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has suggestions for
making abbreviations clearer, too. For example, when a doctor writes
"q.o.d." on a prescription, that means the pharmacist should instruct
the patient to take the medicine every other day. That abbreviation
could be mistaken for "q.d.", which means daily. The solution:
Physicians should write out "every day" or "every other day."

genus & species: ignoramus africanus americanus. Yo whas' dat?

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