More than buying medications, the most important source of error is the management of the medications of the persons that you are providing care for. You don’t want to know the result of these possible errors. It can range from minor conditions up to extreme adverse reactions and even death. The most common victims of these medication errors are the elderly or the sick. Here are some suggestions to lessen the mistakes that you may end up and also make things easier. Hootan Melamed is a very good source of information about medicine so you might want to visit this site.
Get the medications in blister packs directly from the pharmacy. All of the prescriptions and over the counter prescribed medications are usually placed in sealed package with “bubbles” for each day and time of a dose medication. In these bubbles are medications assigned for that particular day and time. In short, the pharmacist has already arranged all the pills for the entire month based on the prescriptions he has received from the doctor. Since this is already planned and arranged, you won’t have to have a hard time giving the medications for your patient.
Another helpful method is to have a dosette or dosettes. These are containers with snap lids that are labeled with the days of the week or at times even have am or pm. With this, the medication will be organized as you will know what to give on a particular day and in the particular hour. You can just give this to your pharmacist and it will be filled up according to the prescription given. With this kind of organization you will avoid giving the same medication twice.
The next tip is to ask the pharmacist to label the bottle with the brand name of the medication. Usually, the doctors upon prescription will use the generic name but the thing is that you are usually more familiar with the brand name because it’s easier to remember. Using generic names might end up more confusion which of course will mean trouble. So, as much as possible, ask the pharmacist to put in the brand name.
Childproof is also another step in avoiding dangers with medications. These aren’t just for children as these are real problems for those who have conditions like arthritis, hand weakness and other conditions that give off hand tremors. And lastly, you should make sure that you have a medication list. It should be complete with the person’s name and date when the list was compiled. The list should also have the medication name, dose and the frequency of taking in of the medication. Also put in other important details. This is the best way to get rid of possible causes of errors. Medications are good but if used the wrong way can cost a life of the person who’s taking it. Be very careful about this. Go here for more.
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