Taking a prescription medicine? The right prescription? The right amount? Not sure? The Institute of Medicine concluded at least 1.5 million Americans are sickened or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications. Prescriptions can be confusing for pharmacists. Is it for Levitra, a pain relief drug? Or Lexapro for depression? Does the prescription say 10 milligrams or 100 milligrams? The wrong answer might kill you.Pharmacist Aubrey Harton has to make these kinds of life and death interpretations every day. “If there's any question we have to stop what we're doing and make a call to the doctor's office sit on hold after the receptionist, wait for the nurse, the nurse has to pull the chart,” said Harton. And it happens more than most of us think. Thumbing through prescriptions Harton found a questionable one. “The sig, which is the instructions is a little hard to read,” said Harton. So what does it say? “Well being a pain medication it could be taken several ways it could be every six hours, it could be one every four hours,” said Harton. Dr. Hal Hedges of Little Rock Family Practice Clinic admits for many doctors handwriting is a problem. “Part of it is the culture of being a physician, you're supposed to have bad handwriting and so we have bad handwriting (laugh).”Let's face it, when most of us get a prescription we're not worried about the doc's penmanship we figure the pharmacist can read it. It can be dangerous because it gives the patient something they don't need or it can be dangerous because it gives a patient too much or too little. But now more doctors are doing away with the prescription pad and using the computer. They can track a patient's medical history and write prescriptions.“It's not doctor chicken scratch it's legible, the pharmacist can read it,” said Dr. Hedges. For example let's say the patient is allergic to penicillin and the doctor wants to put them on amoxicillin, which would cause an allergic reaction, the computer can catch drug interactions or duplications.“If I put someone on and anti-inflammatory and they're already on a different anti-inflammatory it'll say hey, did you really mean to do that?” Dr Hedges says. Once the decision is made with a click of the mouse the prescription is sent to the pharmacist.“When one comes over, it's all typed out,” said Harton. But the computer system can cost thousands of dollars and some offices can't afford it. In that case you, the patient, have to be your own advocate.“The patient is the last catch all for mistakes,” said Dr Hedges. If you can't read the prescription, maybe your pharmacist can't either. Ask your doctor to write it out clearly before you leave the doctor's office. And make sure you know how the drug might interact with other medications you're taking.Take the Family Healthcast Prescription Quiz to see if you can read the doctor's handwriting. Family Healthcast Prescription Quiz
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