Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

7 ways patients can help reduce medication errors

Margaret Polaneczky, MD
Meds
August 11, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share

shutterstock_143469949

I just got off the phone with a very upset patient who had just discovered that her pharmacy had been giving her the wrong medication for the past 5 months, substituting a similarly spelled antibiotic for her rheumatoid arthritis med. She was tipped off when she realized how bad she had been feeling of late and decided to check the expiration date of her med, only to find it was the wrong drug. I won’t get into the unethical behavior of the pharmacist when she pointed out the error, something I’ll be reporting on her behalf to both the head of the pharmacy chain and the state pharmacy board.

But that’s not the point of this post. The point is that, despite all our fancy technology and advances in health care, medication errors can and will occur.

So what can you do, as a patient, to be sure that your prescriptions are correct?

1. Keep a list of your current meds with you at all times. Include brand or generic name, dose and frequency. Paper, online, or on your phone — wherever its easiest and most accessible. But a paper list in your wallet will cover you in emergencies, so consider that even if you use your phone routinely.

2. Cross check and update your med list with your provider at every visit. In quality parlance we call it medication reconciliation, and it’s one of the most important things we docs do at a patient visit.  You’d be shocked how many patient come to a visit without knowing the names of the drugs they are taking. Now, if I go to prescribe a new medication, how can I be sure it doesn’t interact badly with something you are already taking? Or even if you may already be taking the very med I am prescribing? If I’m lucky, your pharmacist will pick it up, but only if you’ve filled a prescription in his system before. Don’t leave it to chance. Take charge.

3. Ask for an updated list of your medications and prescriptions before leaving your doctor’s office. Most EMRs can create a current med list, so ask your doc or his/her staff for a copy. If you use it as your med list to carry with you, we’ll all be on the same page.  Alternatively, if your practice gives out an after visit summary (AVS) at check out, that usually will have your med list on it.

4. If you’re tech savvy, use the practice portal. Your providers practice portal has a med list. Take it upon yourself to check the portal between visits to be sure your med list is up to date and correct. You can usually print your med list yourself from the patient portal.

5. Cross check every med after you pick it up against the prescription your provider wrote. This includes refills. Use your printed med list, the portal or your AVS to check what your provider wants you to be taking. If you don’t have that, you can ask the pharmacist for a copy of your prescription. Don’t wait till side effects occur, as my patient did, to double check. Your health is too important for that.

6. Don’t hesitate to speak up if you think a prescription is wrong. You take it once a week, and now it says twice a week? Say something. And it’s not just the pharmacist who can make a mistake. Your doc isn’t perfect either. In fact, we’re less perfect in some ways since we started using the EMR to write prescriptions. More than once, I’ve caught myself typing in a prescription in the wrong patient’s chart — with up to 4 charts open on the computer screen at a time, it happens, trust me. Recently, my EMR made every part of a prescription a discrete field or check off box from a drop down, so that writing a single prescription is more like completing an online tax return than ordering a med. I hate it. It used to be so much faster (and safer) for me to just write or type out the frequency and dose. So please, stop me if you think I got it wrong.

7. Finally, don’t forget that so called “natural” supplements are meds too. Don’t  get me started on the over use of these unregulated products. (And yes, overuse of prescription drugs as well, but at least we know whose making them and what’s in them.) But do know that many, many interactions can occur between so called “natural” products and prescription meds. So if you’re taking any kind of supplement, vitamin, herb or natural product, be sure to add it to your med list.

Margaret Polaneczky is an obstetrician-gynecologist who blogs at The Blog That Ate Manhattan.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

After Halbig: What's next for Obamacare?

August 11, 2014 Kevin 8
…
Next

Ebola in America: Stop with the hyperbole

August 11, 2014 Kevin 1
…

ADVERTISEMENT

Tagged as: Medications, Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
After Halbig: What's next for Obamacare?
Next Post >
Ebola in America: Stop with the hyperbole

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Margaret Polaneczky, MD

  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    Dense breasts on mammogram? Don’t be afraid.

    Margaret Polaneczky, MD
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    One example where the EMR can really make a difference in outcomes

    Margaret Polaneczky, MD
  • a desk with keyboard and ipad with the kevinmd logo

    Mammograms in younger women: Is the data there?

    Margaret Polaneczky, MD

More in Meds

  • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

    Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO
  • A world without antidepressants: What could possibly go wrong?

    Tomi Mitchell, MD
  • The truth about GLP-1 medications for weight loss: What every patient should know

    Nisha Kuruvadi, DO
  • The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

    Richard A. Lawhern, PhD
  • Biologics are not small molecules: the case for pre-allergy testing in an era of immune-based therapies

    Robert Trent
  • The anesthesia spectrum: Guiding patients through comfort options in oral surgery

    Dexter Mattox, MD, DMD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Physician patriots: the forgotten founders who lit the torch of liberty

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • The hidden cost of becoming a doctor: a South Asian perspective

      Momeina Aslam | Education
    • Why fixing health care’s data quality is crucial for AI success [PODCAST]

      Jay Anders, MD | Podcast
    • Gaslighting and professional licensing: a call for reform

      Donald J. Murphy, MD | Physician
    • Reclaiming trust in online health advice [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Gaslighting and professional licensing: a call for reform

      Donald J. Murphy, MD | Physician
    • How self-improving AI systems are redefining intelligence and what it means for health care

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How blockchain could rescue nursing home patients from deadly miscommunication

      Adwait Chafale | Tech
    • When service doesn’t mean another certification

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Financing cancer or fighting it: the real cost of tobacco

      Dr. Bhavin P. Vadodariya | Conditions
    • Why fixing health care’s data quality is crucial for AI success [PODCAST]

      Jay Anders, MD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 23 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Physician patriots: the forgotten founders who lit the torch of liberty

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • The hidden cost of becoming a doctor: a South Asian perspective

      Momeina Aslam | Education
    • Why fixing health care’s data quality is crucial for AI success [PODCAST]

      Jay Anders, MD | Podcast
    • Gaslighting and professional licensing: a call for reform

      Donald J. Murphy, MD | Physician
    • Reclaiming trust in online health advice [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Gaslighting and professional licensing: a call for reform

      Donald J. Murphy, MD | Physician
    • How self-improving AI systems are redefining intelligence and what it means for health care

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech
    • How blockchain could rescue nursing home patients from deadly miscommunication

      Adwait Chafale | Tech
    • When service doesn’t mean another certification

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Financing cancer or fighting it: the real cost of tobacco

      Dr. Bhavin P. Vadodariya | Conditions
    • Why fixing health care’s data quality is crucial for AI success [PODCAST]

      Jay Anders, MD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

7 ways patients can help reduce medication errors
23 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...