Be Aware of Medication Errors

 Medication Error Exposed

Recently I was with someone who picked up their medications from the pharmacy, signed for the five medications and we left. In the car, my passenger looked at the medications and there were six.  One had a name, address, and phone number of someone my passenger didn’t know.

At this major chain store pharmacy, a customer was given the wrong medication and walked out with it.  This is not the first time.  We returned the medication.  The woman who I returned it to did not apologize.  She only said, “I’ll take that back”.

This is why it is so important for people to talk about safe medical care and treatment.  In the Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy 2022 Patient Safety Symposium we learned about medication errors and how they happen. Check the name of the person and the medication when picking up medication was part of the medication safety presentation.   If we don’t share amongst each other what can go wrong, how can we help avoid an injury or worse.  Imagine if the person in my charge took that medication because many people don’t bother reading the label.  It may be only because there were five medications, we were reviewing which ones they were.

The woman who gave them to us, I’m confident, did not do it on purpose.  Reporting her would not matter and may only bring unwarranted discipline.  She was probably embarrassed enough.  What we DO need are more programs where the public is made aware of these potential errors, and we can be ready to catch them.  Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy offers these programs.  I wish more people would support this.

PS: Giving out the wrong medication also shared another customer’s name and address and what medication they are taking.  I’m not even addressing the lack of privacy here.

Would you have handled this differently?