Why You Should Double Check Your Prescriptions

Working part-time as a nationally certified pharmacy technician, I know firsthand the importance of double checking your prescriptions. While I and other pharmacy staff work hard to ensure 100% accuracy in prescription filling, not all employees are as dedicated and focused on their job role. While technology has helped to increasingly reduce the number of medication dispensing errors, mistakes can still happen.

Various errors can occur from miscounted pills or the wrong strength medication to incorrect dosing directions or the wrong medication all together. Below I have listed a few tips to aid your pharmacy staff in ensuring accuracy and also help you catch errors before a potentially dangerous situation occurs.

-When dropping off a prescription, answer the pharmacy employee's questions accurately and honestly. Make sure drug allergies are known as well as your name, insurance information, date of birth, and address. (This will reduce the chance of receiving another patient's medication order and is especially helpful for prescriptions such as cough medicine which is not easily identifiable by appearance.)

-When you first receive the medication, verify the dosing directions and name of medication. Your doctor should have told you the instructions and the medication name. If you see a drug name you do not recognize, ask your pharmacist as generally this name is merely the name of a cost saving generic. Also if you have had the medication before , check the pills. If they appear different, again ask your pharmacy staff. A good pharmacy staff member will verify the pill and in most cases the difference is due to manufacturer's changes or generic filling.

-At home count your pills to ensure they match the amount on the label. Pharmacies are cautious to fraud so some medications (like percocet) are counted multiple times and a request for extra pills due to miscount is unlikely to be honored. Routine pills such as heart medication are usually given if a miscount is noted by an honest customer.

If you have any suspicion that your prescription has been filled improperly or does not seem right, do not take any of the medication (you'd be surprised how many people go through a 30 day treatment only to discover an error later which could have been deadly). Take any suspicious prescriptions back to your pharmacy for verification and error correction BEFORE taking any of the medication. While pharmacies strive hard to eliminate any errors before they reach the customer, it is the customer's responsibility to understand and know their treatment and medical history.