Many people are hospitalized every year due to drug-related problems like errors in medication reconciliation, mis-diagnosis, overdose, and other drug errors. While some are caused by patients’ own doing, other medication errors are caused by hospital pharmacists.
Patients are checked out of hospitals all the time for a variety of problems and health conditions. However, many of those same patients are readmitted following their discharge due to medication and prescription errors.
A recent report shows that readmission rates have dropped by 20 percent due to pharmacist counseling.
Some hospitals have pharmacists counsel their patients, and it helps patients understand their medications and discharge instructions. When pharmacists are counseling patients, they should be looking to see if the patient is on any other medication that would react with the newly diagnosed prescription, which helps avoid prescription errors and hospital readmission.
Pharmacist counseling has proven to be helpful, and it opens the door to communications about medication. When a patient has his or her questions answered by a hospital pharmacist, medication education takes place, and pharmacists are more likely to review all of a patient’s medications before a patient is discharged.
For instance, this program is in place at South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Pharmacists counsel patients ready for discharge and look for drug duplications, drug interactions, and correct drug therapy for each patient discharged. The pharmacist and physician then approve the medication list and educate the patient about the medication.
This process helps patients understand their medication, how and when to take each drug, and the purpose of their medication, which helps to reduce prescription errors. However, errors can still occur. If you have suffered the harmful side effects of drug errors, please call Kennedy Hodges at 888-526-7616 today to receive a free consultation from a skilled prescription error lawyer and a free copy of our report How to Make Pharmacies Pay for Injuries Caused by Medication Errors.