Taking Your Medications Safely

Prescription medications save lives and help improve the quality of life for many people. But medicines can also pose a danger when they are not used correctly.

Prescription drug errors are a major problem and potentially touch the lives of all Americans. By one estimate, there are about a quarter of a million medication errors committed per year in the outpatient setting alone.

Errors can be relatively insignificant: minor side effects that a patient wasn't warned about. Or more serious: A patient may end up taking the wrong medication, or the wrong dose, or no medicine at all.

The biggest cause of prescription drug errors, is a lack of communication. And that's a lack of communication between physicians and nurses, physicians and patients and families, patients and families and patients and nurses.

That's why experts say: Ask lots of questions. It's the first item on a medicine safety checklist prepared by the US government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Many people are reluctant to ask questions, because it's very, very clear that doctors and all healthcare professionals are very pressed for time these days. Oftentimes, people, think of a question after they leave, and then it's not really clear who to call.

Often doctors don't know all the medicines a patient is taking. So the second item on the safety checklist is: Bring them in.

Watch the Video here!

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