Medication safety
One day, I received a prescription from a specialist for a patient I regularly fill medications for. The prescription was unusual because it came in two pages. The first page was a single medication that the patient was already taking but at a new dose. The second page included three new medications related to mental health conditions that the patient had never used before.
Since I knew the patient’s medication history, I called him to check if the specialist had mentioned these new drugs. He was uncertain and only vaguely remembered being prescribed one medication. Not wanting to risk confusion or harm, I suggested holding the new medications until I could verify with the prescribing doctor.
After a few days, the doctor contacted me to clarify that the second page of medications was meant for another patient and had been included in the prescription by mistake. The new medications were never dispensed to my patient, avoiding a potentially serious error.
Because of a pharmacist, something important happened.
