How to avoid some errors at the pharmacy

When you pick and choose up your prescriptions in a medical store, how directly do you look at the label?

Everyone should follow Steps One, Two and Three below:

• 1) Write down your prescription information. That's because when you hand over the prescription to the pharmacist you no longer have a record of what your doctor prescribed. This way, you will have the information in hand so that you can make sure you get the right medicine.

• 2) Check out the label. Is that your name, medicine and the right dosage? Sometimes drug names look and sound familiar, so make sure the name of the drug on the label matches the prescription your doctor gave you. Sometimes pharmacies will swap out brand name drugs for generics drugs, so when that happens just double-check with your pharmacist.

• 3) Open the bottle. While you're at the pharmacist's, I advise opening the bottle and showing the pills to the pharmacist. Ask if it's the drug you've been prescribed.

For more advice, read my Online Pharmacy blog how to avoid pharmacy errors.