With the growing population and the equal number of growing medical prescriptions, it’s understandable that medication errors will occur at times. These errors can happen at home, at hospitals, and at pharmacies.
Tips To Reduce Medication Errors At Home
Here are a few tips to avoid medication errors at home:
1. Keep your prescription medicines locked up so that kids cannot get them.
2. Pin up your doctor’s prescription next to your bed and read it each time you take your medications. This will help prevent accidental overdose.
3. Note the expiry dates of medications; if a medication is nearing expiry, mark a huge red
X on it.4. If your pharmacy issues expired medications to you by mistake, bring this to your health provider’s notice.
5. Never take another person’s prescription even if you have a similar problem.
6. Always monitor your children when they take their prescriptions.
7. Don’t retain left over prescription medications to use later if the same symptoms occur. Always consult your doctor each time.
8. Throw out any medication that’s gone past its expiration date.
9. Do not store any medications for which you've lost the prescriptions.
10. Always find out about the medication you’ve been prescribed, its purpose and dosage.
11. Understand the drug directions; how many times a day, and how many hours apart are you supposed to take a drug?
12. Find out if the drug should be stored in the fridge or at room temperature
13. Find out if you need to avoid medications, food items and beverages
14. Find out if there are any side effects of the medication and what you should do to manage them
15. When you give medication to your kids, read the drug name, dosage and prescription each time.
16. Make sure only one member of your family is in charge of dispensing medications to your children.
17. Always use the measuring spoon that accompanies the medicine and not your kitchen spoons.
18. Use compliance aids such as medicine containers with dosage based sections for daily doses. This will keep you from mixing up your medications.
19. Report all medications you are currently taking including OTC drugs, diet supplements, and herbs and so on. Some of the medications you’re taking might reduce the effect of a prescription medication.
20. Use a single pharmacy for all your prescriptions to ensure your records are in one place.
21. Your doctor and your pharmacy should know about y our medication allergies and any unpleasant drug reactions.
