Medication Problems from Duplication

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This is one feature from DiabetesClinical Mastery that I enjoy. This does not always give meideas for blogs, but occasionally there is a brief article thatspeaks volumes and points out some of the problems within our medicalsystem. This article is not an exception and shows what happens whenpatients do not fill their prescriptions at one pharmacy, or providetheir pharmacy of a complete list of medications they are taking,
This is one reason that more doctorsare asking patients to being in all their medications in thecontainers in which they were received. Even then, some patients tryto avoid doing this – to the point of endangering their health. The patient in this article did as she was asked and this may havesaved her life. The author found two prescriptions for lisinopril. One prescription was for 20 mg and one for 40 mg, each to be takendaily.
She explained that the 20 mg was forher kidney and the 40 mg was for her hypertension. When the labelswere examined, that was the case and each had been filled atdifferent pharmacies. This explained why she had complained of beingdizzy and afraid of falling when she rose from her chair. The doctorhad her stop the 20 mg and her problems cleared.
The lesson learned by the author isthat the same medication may be prescribed to a patient for differentreasons and patients are most likely unfamiliar with the reasons forthe medication. At least this author recognizes the fact thatpatient education is necessary to prevent the patient from eitherdiscontinuing the medication or like this example overdosing on amedication.
Even though this is listed as onelesson learned, the author did not forget that patients need to beencouraged to fill all prescriptions at one pharmacy. By doing this,the pharmacist should have recognized the problem and advised thedifferent doctors at least or advised the patient of the problem.
There are other lessons to be learnedfrom this example. First, every doctor should be aware of otherdoctors treating the patient and for what. This I make sure of andhave the cooperation of all doctors concerned. I also provide attheir request all medications I am taking, the dosage, when I amtaking each, and who is prescribing the medication. The doctors doconfer and I have only two doctors renewing my prescriptions. When anew one is needed, the conflicts are determined and the prescriptionissued if there are no conflicts. If the prescription if for theshort-term, which all recently have been, the doctor concerned doesthe prescribing.
Another lesson is that patients oftendo not tell their doctor about supplements they are taking. Sincemany may conflict with medications, this always needs investigation. The last lesson is that some patients will not fill prescriptions atthe same pharmacy for reasons only they are aware of. Others do notwant one pharmacist to know all the medications they may be taking. Still others are receiving prescriptions that they in turn areselling for money. These are major problems within out currentmedical system.