With the winter season approaching, sickness is more prevalent than ever. Many experience bacterial infections, so they must visit their local pharmacy to pick up antibiotics to bring them back to health. Medication is a crucial part of people’s lives, from trying to fight off a cold to coping with a chronic illness that impacts one’s day-to-day, such as making it more challenging to maintain independence. Therefore, pharmacies must prioritize accuracy to ensure their patients’ safety and well-being.
Last month, the Marion CVS Pharmacy was issued a fine by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy for dispensing an incorrect prescription to a 22-month-old. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, a technician “allegedly gave the child’s mother azithromycin tablets instead of a liquid and failed to provide counseling on use of the medication.” Whenever a patient has a new medicine, Iowa law requires that a pharmacist must explain how to use it and answer any questions they may have. Carly Brainard, junior, visits her local pharmacy frequently and believes that accuracy should be taken seriously in this setting. She said, “The mistake that took place at the CVS Pharmacy could’ve 100% been prevented. There definitely should have been more precautions taken, for example, double-checking and giving a consult.” Although errors happen, if the employees had taken extra time to review the prescription and had a pharmacist speak with the child’s mother, this incident might never have occurred.
Nobody is perfect, so in every workplace, missteps will happen. However, if there aren’t any systems in place to detect them, they are more likely to become a bigger issue, especially regarding prescriptions, which could bring harm to a patient. Tammy Odell is a pharmacist and has been the manager of the Marion Hy-Vee Pharmacy for the past two years. She said, “Accuracy is essential in the pharmacy. It can be a matter of life or death… Wrong drug, wrong strength, wrong directions, or wrong patient can all cause harm, even if unintentional.” Odell also believes that providing counseling for a new medication is crucial to ensuring that the customer understands how to use it correctly.
Some prevention methods that Odell uses, along with other employees with whom she works, include software that detects mistakes, ensuring that multiple people are double-checking the prescription, and verifying customers’ dates of birth. Following an accident, they must assess whether the patient was injured or otherwise harmed, then document what happened and notify the doctor. When the Board of Pharmacy reviews these errors, this is when they may choose to issue a fine. For example, the Marion CVS must pay a $5,000 civil penalty and require specific training for all pharmacy employees. Brainard feels as though precision is critical for a few different reasons. “Accuracy in a pharmacy is so important because they are responsible for delivering the correct medications in the correct form and dosage. I view pharmacies as the middle ground to getting better because when a doctor prescribes medication to you, you then have to rely on the pharmacy to correctly dispense it,” she said. Although she has never personally experienced any errors with her prescriptions, she still believes that employees should do their best to prevent them.
Overall, many people’s well-being is directly impacted by the quality of their care, including medication. Employees in a pharmaceutical setting must be actively aware of this and do everything they can to make patients’ experiences positive. Everyone gets sick; therefore, most rely on medicine to live. It is also critical that customers realize that mistakes will always happen, no matter how many precautions are in place to prevent them.
