When you take a prescription to the pharmacy, you may have to wait for a period of time until it is ready. You are probably anxious to get home and may not realize just what your pharmacist is doing for you during that time. Here's a look at what your pharmacist typically does to make sure the medicine is safe and right for you.
Read Safety ArticleA doctor prescribed doxepin (Sinequan) 50 mg daily for a young man with depression. This medicine is available in a 50 mg capsule. But the pharmacy where the man had the prescription filled carried only 10 mg and 100 mg capsules. The lower dose (10 mg) is normally used to treat patients with chronic itching. A higher dose (50 mg or more) is the usual dose to treat depression.
Read Safety ArticleThe following recommendations are provided to you when chosing a pharrmacy for your services:
Read Safety ArticleRecently a woman notified our organization after realizing her doctor prescribed the incorrect dose for an antimalarial medicine. The woman, who was soon going to travel to a part of the world where malaria is present, discussed with her doctor about taking medicine to prevent malaria. Having taken antimalarial medicine in the past, the woman asked her doctor to prescribe chloroquine (the same medication she has taken many years ago).
Read Safety ArticleYour prescription medicine may not be available at the pharmacy due to a drug shortage. This problem can happen for many reasons. Sometimes the company that makes the medicine does not have enough of one of the ingredients. Other times, the company has stopped making your medicine altogether.
Read Safety ArticleSome medicines, including many prescribed for children, come in a powder form. Water must be added to the powder so the medicine can be easily measured and taken. The ratio of water to powder must be precise, so that the prescribed amount of the final liquid mixture provides the correct dose of medicine per milliliter (mL). It is best for the pharmacist to add water right before the medicine is picked up. Once mixed, the medicine often needs to be refrigerated to stay potent. But if the pharmacist forgets to add the water, or if the wrong amount of water is added at home, a serious dosing error can occur.
Read Safety ArticleWhen a middle-aged man arrived at a pharmacy to pick up a refill for lactulose (a prescription medicine commonly used as a laxative), he was told that he needed a new prescription from his doctor. There were no refills left on his previous prescription. The pharmacist suggested that the man could use KARO corn syrup as a substitute for lactulose until he visited his doctor for his next check-up.
Read Safety ArticleA patient was accidentally given another patient’s medications at a pharmacy. Later, when a pharmacist realized the mistake, he attempted to reach the patient by phone. However, the patient did not answer. The pharmacist kept trying but did not get through until later that evening. By that time, the patient had already taken another patient’s CELLCEPT (mycophenolate mofetil), a drug that lowers your immunity (it's used in transplant patients to prevent rejection), instead of her new prescription for ZESTRIL (lisinopril) to treat hypertension.
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