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Advice on the Importance of Drug Compliance By: Eric Feil- Caring Today Magazine LLC

According to a new report, roughly 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s offices—a number that does not include an estimate of mistakes patients themselves make! In hospitals alone, an average of one medication error per patient per day occurs.

Michael Cohen, president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and co-author of the study, offers patients and caregivers the following key recommendations:
Before leaving your doctor's office, know the name of each new prescription medication, how to take it, the side effects and potential adverse effects, and why it’s being taken.

Seek out doctors who prescribe by computer. Computers can alert doctors to the thousands of possible drug interaction concerns and also take into account a patient’s personal information (allergies, for example) to help screen out drugs and doses that might cause adverse effects.
Talk directly to your pharmacist before leaving the pharmacy with a new prescription. Obtain important information about the medication and, to avoid errors, make sure the information from the pharmacist matches what the doctor said.

Share important clinical information (allergies, chronic diseases, problems with liver or kidney, pregnancy status, whether you are breastfeeding, etc.) in confidence with your pharmacist. He or she can serve as an important double-check to make sure nothing is overlooked regarding you or your care recipient.

Maintain an up-to-date list of all medications, nonprescription drugs, herbal remedies, vitamins, etc. It is critically important that caregivers have this information about their care recipients before treatment begins. Patients often overlook the importance of having this kind of list or do not consider certain items important enough to include.

~Serena Brock