Prevent Medication Errors
Have You Ever Received a Wrong Prescription?
In 2010, more than 3.9 billion prescriptions were filled at chain 
drugstores like Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid and Wal-Mart. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in 2008, 1.9 million people became ill or were injured from medication side effects or because they took or were given the wrong type or dose of medication, compared with 1.2 million injured in 2004.
Did you know that most pharmacies don’t report prescription errors because they’re not required to? The federal government and most states in the U.S. do not have laws that require drugstores to report prescription errors, even if the cases lead to serious complications or death.
Protect Yourself from Prescription Errors:
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality offers a few tips that consumers can use to lower the chance of pharmacy errors:
- When your doctor writes a prescription for you, make sure you can read it.
- When you pick up your medicine from the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist if this is the medicine that your doctor prescribed.
- Open the bag containing your medication container, and make sure the medicine matches your prescription and your name is on the container.
- Make sure you understand how to properly take the medication. Read drug labels. Ask your pharmacist about how much medication to take, when and whether you should expect to experience any side effects. Visit Public Citizen’s Worst Pills, Best Pills website.
- Keep a list of all medication you are taking whether prescribed or over the counter. Include the drug’s name, doctor, reason for taking the medication, dosage, any drug side effects, how you take the drug, etc.
