New high-tech Rx-writing system can still make deadly mistakes
It’s a $27 billion fiasco.
And too many Americans are paying for it — with their lives.
The Obama Administration spent a fortune incentivizing doctors’ offices to switch to a snazzy new electronic prescription system called eRx.
If you’ve had an appointment with your doc recently, you probably saw eRx firsthand. Just a couple clicks on the computer, and your prescription gets sent straight to your pharmacy of choice.
We were promised that eRx was going to make getting our meds easier. That it would even cut down on prescribing errors.
But a new report proves that the system comes with serious dangers we were never warned about.
Risks that could even kill you unless you take four simple steps before filling your next script.
When a kid gets strep throat, it can be painful and miserable — but it shouldn’t be deadly.
But one child nearly lost her life when her doctor selected a drug for a rare liver disease instead of penicillin from a drop-down menu on an eRx system.
These kinds of problems weren’t supposed to happen with eRx. After decades of prescribing errors caused by doctors’ unreadable chicken-scratch handwriting, eRx was supposed to fix everything.
That’s why our government even spent $27 billion to encourage doctors’ offices to make the switch.
But it turns out the only thing worse than your typical doctor’s penmanship are his computer skills.
Because a new report from Medscape found a new and dangerous spike in prescribing errors linked to eRx systems. Mistakes you might not know about until it’s too late.
Like the case of a patient who was given a drug for heroin addicts instead of a generic form of Ritalin. Both meds had very similar names.
You see, instead of having to write out prescriptions on a pad like in the old days, doctors now select from menus with lots of choices. And just one slip of the finger can be enough to foul up everything from your dosage to which drug you’re supposed to take.
And the problem is getting worse, because more than one-third of doctors actually use their smart phones to fill prescriptions!
Just think how often you make mistakes typing a text message or an email on your smart phone. Now imagine you were filling out a complicated prescription where the consequences of an error could be life or death.
Not the kind of situation where you want auto-correct kicking in!
And because many of us may not receive copies of our scripts before they’re sent to be filled, we end up depending on alert pharmacists to catch the mistakes.
But lots of time pharmacists don’t catch these errors either — like in the case of a 15-year-old whose pharmacy handed her the schizophrenia drug Olanzapine instead of an antibiotic.
The other problem with eRx is something called “alert fatigue.”
Computerized systems produce so many warnings about possible drug interactions that doctors just start ignoring them and may miss potentially serious problems. One study found that close to 93 percent of drug interaction warnings were ignored by doctors.
It looks like eRx isn’t quite ready for prime time. And electronic prescribing is no guarantee that you won’t be harmed by your next prescription.
Fortunately, there are four things you can do right now to keep yourself safe.
- Never let your doctor send off a prescription you haven’t seen. Make sure you leave his office with the exact name of the drug (including the names of any generics your pharmacy may substitute), what it’s for, and dosing instructions.
- When you pick up a prescription at a pharmacy, check the drug name and dose carefully. Something as simple as a misplaced decimal could have you taking a dose 10 times (or more) higher than your doctor intended.
- Ask to talk with the pharmacist every time you pick up a prescription. That extra set of expert eyes can make a big difference in spotting a potential error.
- You know that packet of information that comes with every prescription? Be sure to read it! It’s another chance to make sure you’re getting the right med and to look for any interactions your doctor or pharmacist may have missed.
Remember: no matter how reliable technology may seem, it’s only as efficient as the people using it. And we all know that to err is human — but a little diligence on your part could keep a mistake from costing you your life.
Sources:
“Seven (potentially) deadly prescribing errors” Lauri R. Graham, Laurie Scudder, DNP, NP, Laura Stokowski, RN, October 22, 2015, Medscape, medscape.com
