Prescription drugs can be helpful to the healing process. But how positive are you that you are taking the correct medication? Do you know what it should look like? Do you know how to take it properly? Believe it or not, taking the wrong medicine or taking it incorrectly accounts for numerous emergency room visits each year and approximately 125,000 deaths.
The best way to counteract this is to read the label on the bottle. The label contains a description of what the pill should look like. This vital piece of information alone can actually save your life. Read that on the bottle, and then look at the pills closely. Do they match what the label says? If not, do not take it.
The reason for this is that many drug manufacturers produce the same drugs, but with a different appearance. One may be a small, round blue pill while another may be an oval shaped white one. They may act the same and do the same job, but they do look different.
It is also a fact that a medication in varying strengths will have different appearances. Some drugs come in a range of strengths, for example they may range from 1mg to 5mg. Each strength of drug could have a different shape, color or lettering on them.
Another thing to watch for is a wrong pill in the wrong bottle. Be sure the pill inside the bottle is what the label says it should be. If you have any questions whatsoever concerning your medication, call your pharmacist immediately. Exactly how big a problem this really is will surprise you.
A very well respected customer reporting firm did a study a few years ago. They had prescriptions for the same medication filled at 5 different pharmacies. All five pharmacies were large, well known entities. They found that there were inconsistencies in data, information and instructions across all 5 prescription labels. In some cases, the most vital information was completely omitted.
Before you take any prescription medication, read the label and make sure that what the label says is actually what is in the bottle. Every label has a physical description of the pills inside including color, size, shape and markings. Make sure you are taking the correct medicine in the proper way.
Your life or the life of a loved one literally depends on it. If you or a loved one has taken the wrong medication due to a prescription error contact Bryan Caulfield today!