The June 2010 issue of Consumer Reports onHealth featured a cover story titled “How to prevent drug errors.” Very well done. The article confirms all the advice you read here including the importance of using one pharmacy, knowing your drugs, and knowing your pharmacist. Except…….
Their advice on ‘Use reminders.’ “Place pill bottles in a noticeable location, post a medication schedule, set timers, and try to take medicines at a set time each day – for instance, at breakfast or bedtime.”
Good advice, right? Sure, if you are taking one or two pills a day. However if you are taking more than that, especially if you’re taking a drug that has to taken at different times during the day, setting up your own system gets complicated.
We are taking more prescription medication than ever before. 21% of Americans now take 3 or more drugs a day, up from 11% in 1994. Half of all Americans take at least one prescription medication a day. 63% of elderly Americans now take at least 3 or more drugs daily, up from 35% in 1994. Many seniors take 10, 14, 20 or more drugs every day.
Consumers are not computers. We’re human beings. Most of us are lucky to get the trash out on the right day. We mean well, but trusting ourselves to manage all these drugs? Trusting ourselves to set timers, fill the medplanners correctly, post a medication schedule? Not just for a week, but month in and month out? Year in and year out?
How well are we doing? Deaths from medication errors, legally prescribed medications, are now higher than deaths from illegal drugs. The cost of medication errors is somewhere between $177 and $300 billion dollars annually. Taking drugs incorrectly is the main reason people have to enter the hospital or leave their homes to live in a facility.
The number one reason people don’t take the right medication at the right time? They simply forget. That’s why pilots, some of the smartest, well trained professionals who literally hold peoples lives in their hands….use a checklist to prepare for flight. Because even the best forget, or get distracted or tired.
Surgeons are now adopting the practice of using checklists. Why? Because as pilots discovered, even being smart, dedicated, and well trained doesn’t make you a computer.
It’s human nature to believe that we are different, that we don’t need help. When it comes to flying or surgery, that nature has to take a back seat to saving lives. What about when it comes to our medication management? If you’re relying on yourself or your own system to remember, you may unnecessarily be taking your health in your own hands.
There are systems available that will manage your medications for you or your loved ones. Medipackrx.com is one. Let Medipack worry about the details. Simplify your life so you have the time and health to enjoy it.
Have you noticed your own human nature or that of others get in the way of enjoying life? Please post about it here.
