Pharmacists examine different practices to lower medication errors

According to an Associated Press report, in response to an alarming rate of preventable medication errors in the United States, pharmacists are beginning to aggressively review prescriptions and even intervening with patients' doctors to "head off costly, potentially deadly problems." (Source: "Pharmacists get more involved in making medication use safer," Canton Repository, October 15, 2007.) The Institute of Medicine reports that at least "1.5 million preventable medication errors occur annually and that it costs at least $3.5 billion to treat the resulting injuries."

Among the different strategies pharmacists are using to lower medication errors are computers which flag patients with diabetes, cancer and infectious diseases so specialty pharmacists can review their prescriptions, looking for dosing errors or possible interactions with other drugs, making sure patients are refilling their prescriptions properly, and seeing if other medicines might be more appropriate than the ones prescribed by a doctor. Along these lines, last year Medicare began paying pharmacists at independent and chain drug stores to provide annual reviews and counseling for patients with multiple chronic illnesses and medications.