Electronic prescriptions are just as error-prone as the written kind

It wasn’t too long ago when getting a prescription meant one thing. You were given a small, square piece of paper with your doctor’s scrawl on it that you took to the pharmacy.

Now, of course, we typically don’t even touch an Rx, which usually is electronically transmitted right to the pharmacist.

And this, we’ve been told, is a much safer way. Doctors’ handwriting, after all, has been the butt of jokes for a long time — no need to worry about that anymore!

But as it turns out, electronic prescriptions haven’t made things that much safer. In fact, they can be even more dangerous than the hand-written kind.

That’s why you need to know four simple tips to keep a trip to the drug store from turning deadly.

‘Trust but verify’

E-prescriptions were supposed to streamline the process of dispensing drugs so much that prescribing errors would be as rare as hen’s teeth.

Well, good luck with that.

In the real world, they contain mistakes galore. One pharmacist was so disturbed by this situation that he wrote a commentary about it for a medical website, saying that regardless of who sends a prescription out, “no one is taking the time to check to ensure that what they are sending over is 100% correct.”

He added that pharmacists are still making just as many calls to doctors’ offices to try and figure things out as they did in the old days of a paper Rx.

But that’s already a good thing, because it means that at least someone is on the lookout.

Unfortunately, plenty of those mistakes still aren’t caught in time. Either they don’t appear to be errors, or pharmacists just don’t question or notice them.

And that’s when things can turn deadly, with the wrong drug or dose, or even incorrect directions being provided.

On top of everything else, chain pharmacies are notoriously understaffed.

One retired pharmacist said colleagues routinely referred to their jobs as “McPharmacy” as they “sling out potentially deadly medication just like McDonald’s slings out hamburgers.”

A typical busy pharmacy may be filling 300 or more prescriptions a day.

But what’s being called the biggest problem with e-prescriptions is something Joe Graedon, People’s Pharmacy co-founder, likened to doctors running red lights and stop signs.

So many computer alerts sound, both in your doctor’s office and at the pharmacy counter, that they are often ignored. Drug interaction alarms are “routinely overridden by both physicians and pharmacists,” a “well-kept secret” among health professionals, he said.

The answer, as Graedon suggests, might be to follow Ronald Reagan’s advice. And that’s to “Trust but verify.”

And here are four ways to do that:

1. Always ask to speak with a pharmacist when you pick up an Rx (an option you should be given automatically). Show him your drug and ask about potential interactions, including any OTC meds you’re taking.
2. Check the dose, drug name and directions before you leave the counter. E-prescriptions can easily have misplaced decimal points and wrong numbers — something that could have you taking an unintended giant dose of a med. And always check to see if your name is on the bottle.
3. Know your drugs! You should know the names, dose and directions for all the meds you’re prescribed. If not, ask your doctor to give you that information and write it all down.
4. Before you take pill one from a new bottle, always make sure it is what you think it is. If it’s another color or shape than what you’re used to, it could be the wrong medication. You can easily check a drug’s identity by going here.

Sources:
“Can you trust your electronic prescriptions?” Joe Graedon, August 8, 2016, The People’s Pharmacy, peoplespharmacy.com