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Medication errors: Cut your risk with these tips
Content
What exactly are medication errors?
How do medication errors happen?
Know how to prevent medication errors
Participate in medication reconciliation
Avoid these mistakes
Make safety a habit
A final word on medication errors
Know how to prevent medication errors
Knowledge is your best defense. If you don't understand something your doctor says, ask for an explanation. Whenever you start a new medication, make sure you know the answers to these questions:
- What is the brand or generic name of the medication?
- What is the medication supposed to do? How long will it be until I see results?
- What is the dose? How long should I take it?
- What should I do if I miss a dose?
- What should I do if I accidentally take more than the recommended dose?
- Are there any foods, drinks, other medications or activities I should avoid while taking this medicine?
- What are the possible side effects? What should I do if they occur?
- Will this new medication interfere with my other medication(s)? If so, how?
Your doctor can help prevent medication errors by using a computer to enter and print (or digitally send) any prescription details, instead of hand writing one.
