Feb
1
Ask the Pharmacist
By Stefanie Tagg, RPh
You go to the doctor either at a walk-in clinic, your physician’s office or the hospital and you come out with a piece of paper with your name on it and what looks like a bunch of scribbles. This little piece of paper, which may appear insignificant, is actually an important legal document. Most of the time your community pharmacy has no trouble filling your prescription but, on occasion, some follow-up is required which can take time and delay you receiving your medication.
What can you do to ensure your prescription gets filled correctly and promptly? Before leaving the doctor's office, take a moment to review the prescription. Does it match what you and your doctor just discussed? Sometimes patients pick-up their prescriptions at the pharmacy only to comment that “the dose wasn’t supposed to increase,” or “my doctor said he/she was going to give me 3 months, not 1 month.” Discrepancies like this can take time for your local pharmacy to check and confirm, which can delay you taking home your medications, sometimes into the next business day.
Look to make sure your name is written on the prescription, usually at the top. Look to see if the strength of the medication is what you were expecting. Make sure the doctor has their name and/or license number (normally 4 to 5 numbers) and signature at the bottom. Check to see if the quantity is correct. Did the doctor write 1 month, 120 tablets, etc. and if you are expecting refills, does it say so? Is there a date that the prescription was written? This is particularly important for narcotic prescriptions.
For new prescriptions from the emergency room or walk-in clinic, it is especially important to make sure your doctor has written their license number or name on the prescription. Pharmacies have to call the hospital or clinic to verify which doctor you saw, which can be time consuming if it is difficult to find out who prescribed it in a large hospital setting. Now there are many things written on the prescriptions that won’t make sense. In the medical profession, we use Latin abbreviations such as prn (as needed) or bid (twice a day). You don’t need to understand what these mean. Your pharmacist also knows how medications are supposed to be taken, which makes reading prescriptions much easier. You won’t always be able to decipher the prescription and that’s okay, because it is the pharmacy staff’s job to do that. But if you see something is missing or incorrect while you are still seeing the doctor, it can be a time-saver to have a quick double-check.
The James Bay Beacon receives monthly contributions from the following pharmacists:
Jason Cridge - Cridge Family Pharmacy;
Stefani Tagg - Thrifty Foods Pharmsacy; and
Robert Wojtas - James Bay Pharmasave