Brintellix and Brilinta mix-ups. An elderly woman required hospitalization when the pharmacy confused Brintellix and Brilinta and gave her the wrong medicine. Brintellix (vortioxetine) is a medicine used to treat depression. Brilinta (ticagrelor) is a medicine that helps to prevent clots in patients with certain heart diseases. The woman was given a prescription for Brilinta 90 mg to take twice a day. But the pharmacy staff misread the medicine label on the bottle that was selected from the shelf and filled the prescription with Brintellix 10 mg. The medicine bottles for Brilinta and Brintellix were on the same shelf, side-by-side, and the wrong bottle was picked up.
Read Safety ArticleThe oral syringes that come with risperidone oral solutions are uniquely labeled and may cause confusion. Risperidone is a medicine used to treat certain mood disorders. Unlike other oral syringes, risperidone oral syringes have a barrel (the part that holds the medicine) that does not have any lines or numbers (markings). Instead, the markings appear on the plunger ( Figure 1). To measure a dose, the plunger must be pulled back until the dose marking aligns with the flange (winged end) of the barrel. Even though these syringes are different than other oral syringes, the instructions do not provide detailed, clearly illustrated information on how to read the markings when measuring a dose. We recently learned about a man who may have taken too much risperidone due to confusion with the dose markings.
Read Safety ArticleComing up with a name for a new medicine isn’t as easy as you think. Drug companies look for names that scream ‘take me’ to fix what ails you. The name also needs to stick in your doctor’s mind so it is easy to remember.
Read Safety ArticleThe pharmacy label on your prescription medicine has important information. It identifies you as the person who will be taking the medicine and tells you how to use your medicine properly and safely. Adding a label to medicines such as tubes of creams, small bottles of liquids or eye drops, and inhalers can be difficult. In these cases, the label is sometimes placed on the outer carton or package that contains the medicine.
Read Safety ArticleMany people are aware that prescription pills, tablets and capsules have unique letters and numbers on them used for pill identification. With each new prescription, it’s important to check the pill identification to ensure you have the correct medicine. Most people only complete this safety check when they first get a new prescription. However, every time you take a pill, you should make sure it is correct.
Read Safety ArticleIt should never happen, but it's not unheard of for another patient's medication to somehow slip into your bag before you pick it up at the pharmacy. Bagging errors can happen when more than one patient's medications are in the pharmacy work field at the same time, often during the prescription packaging process. Pharmacists are well aware of this and most pharmacies do require that staff work on only one patient's medications at a time. Nevertheless, since bags containing prescription medications are not routinely opened at the point-of-sale, if an error does happen it may not be captured before the patient leaves the pharmacy.
Read Safety ArticleOur organization often hears from consumers who report the quantity of medicine they receive from the pharmacy is less than the amount prescribed by their physician. For example, we recently received a report from a young patient who had dental surgery and received a prescription for the narcotic painkiller Lortab (hydrocodone and acetaminophen). On the prescription the dentist wrote for 24 pills to be dispensed. The patient’s mother had the prescription filled at a local pharmacy. When she returned home she counted only 21 pills. The mother called the pharmacy because she wanted to make sure the pharmacist was aware that a mistake had been made in the count. But the pharmacist became defensive, even suggesting that the woman’s daughter must have taken the pills without her knowledge.
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