Incorrect, Refilling, Multiple and

Sharing

GROUP #1
What is a prescription?
» it is an order for
medications, non-drug
products or services
issued by a physician,
dentist, veterinarian or
other properly licensed
practitioner authorized
to prescribe.
INCORRECT
PRESCRIPTION
When patients go to the doctor
for treatment of an ailment,
they expect to receive proper
care to help them overcome
their illness. Doctors frequent-
ly prescribe medications to
help patients combat illness or
to minimize symptoms until the
illness subsides. While
prescriptions can be very
effective when used properly,
they can also be detrimental
if an incorrect prescription is
issued.
When Prescriptions Go Wrong
Somewhere between the writing of a
prescription at the doctor's office and the
receipt of the medication from a pharmacy, a
prescription may be prepared incorrectly.
With all of the complicated names that
medications have, it can be easy for a patient
to miss a mistake and take a wrong
prescription that sounds very much like
another. While it is excusable for a patient to
miss the mistake, a trained professional, such
as a doctor or pharmacist, has a responsibility
to ensure that the proper prescription is being
issued. If you have become ill from an
incorrect prescription, a doctor, nurse,
pharmacist, or assistant may be responsible.
 Unfortunately, sometimes patients are issued an
incorrect medication, which can lead to further
health problems or can even be deadly. There are
several things that can go wrong with a
prescription, including:
• Incorrect dosage
• Misspelled drug name
• Wrong drug issued
• Incorrect duration of medication recommended
Any of these mistakes can have severe
consequences for the patient. An incorrect dosage
or taking the drug too long could effectively
poison a patient. Receiving the wrong drug
altogether could doubly hurt the patient by
leading to negative side effects and preventing
the patient’s original medical problem from being
treated.
COST TO THE PATIENT
• Ataking
patient may incur several costs from
the wrong prescription.
• The patient's health may be compromised
because not only is his or her illness not
being treated properly, but he or she is
ingesting drugs that are not needed,
which could cause further health
complications and make the patient even
more sick.
• The time during which the patient is
unknowingly taking the wrong drug is
also wasted time that could have been
used to properly treat the illness, so it
may take longer for the patient to
recover.
REFILLING
PRESCRIPTION
The law requires that a
prescription contain certain
information before it is
filled. The pharmacist is
responsible for the
completeness of the
prescription. Therefore, the
pharmacist or a pharmacy
employee may ask you for
information which the
doctor didn't write on the
prescription, for example,
your complete name and/or
address.
REFILLING
PRESCRIPTION
In addition, the pharmacist is
required to screen, or review, the
prescription and your patient
medication record prior to filling the
prescription. In order to perform
this screen, or drug utilization
review (DUR), the pharmacist will
ask you to provide some basic
health information such as:
• your sex or gender;
• age, or date of birth;
• any known allergies, drug reactions,
chronic conditions; and
• names of other drugs you may be
routinely taking, including over-the-
counter drugs such as Tylenol,
aspirin, antacids, etc.
REFILLING
PRESCRIPTION
This patient medication record assists the
pharmacist in identifying medication
problems such as:
• drug allergies;
• interactions with other drugs you are
taking;
• incorrect drug dosage or length of
treatment;
• therapeutic duplication with other drugs
being taken; and
• inappropriate use of a drug.
A patient has the right to refuse to give
part or all of this information to the
pharmacist. However, if the patient refuses
to give this information to the pharmacist,
the patient loses the benefit of the
pharmacist's screening for any potential
problems that could affect the patient's
health. Please note that the pharmacist
is required to keep all patient information
confidential.
Why does pharmacist sometimes call the doctor before
refilling the prescription??
A pharmacist may not refill a
prescription unless the doctor has
authorized it to be refilled. A doctor
may authorize no refills, one refill,
or several refills on the original
prescription. After all of the refills
authorized on the original
prescription have been used, a
pharmacist must obtain
authorization from the doctor
before the prescription can be
refilled.
Is the pharmacist required to fill prescription??
Occasionally, pharmacists may refuse to fill a prescription
if they believe that filling the prescription is not in the
best interest of your health. Some of the reasons a
pharmacist may refuse to fill a prescription include:
• the pharmacist is concerned that the medication will
interact badly with another drug you are taking;
• the pharmacist believes that an excessive quantity
has been prescribed; or
• the pharmacist has an indication that the prescription
wasn't issued by the doctor whose name appears on
the prescription.
It is the responsibility of the pharmacist to contact the
doctor for clarification if they have any questions
about the medical correctness or legality of a
prescription. By doing this, pharmacists perform a
vital, final check prior to your taking the medication.
MULTIPLE
PRESCRIPTION
a.k.a. DOCTOR SHOPPING
Those who doctor shop often go to
multiple doctors, emergency rooms, and
pharmacies and feign symptoms or gain
sympathy to obtain prescriptions. Common
feigned ailments include migraine
headaches, toothaches, cancer, psychiatric
disorders, and attention deficit disorder. In
addition, offenders may deliberately injure
themselves to get a prescription from an
emergency room. Another approach is to
claim to be from out of town and to have
forgotten to pack prescription drugs, or to
claim to have lost the drugs from a
legitimate prescription. Some patients will
then actively seek out other physicians to
obtain more of the same medication, often
by faking or exaggerating the extent of
their true condition, in order to feed their
addiction to that drug.
PRESCRIPTION SHARING

The first resort of many users of

legally prescribed drugs who become
addicted is to alter a legitimate
prescription to change the type of
drug, increase the number of refills,
increase the quantity, or add drugs.
Another tactic is to copy legitimate
prescriptions for multiple uses.
Prescription sharing includes not only
the actual sharing of a prescription
drug, but also the theft and
unauthorized sale of prescription
drugs. Theft can include a family
member taking the prescriptions from
another member of the household or
taking prescriptions from a stranger.
The Law. . . .
Federal and state laws govern the use, sale
and distribution of prescription drugs. The
Controlled Substances Act of Title 21 Food
and Drug Administration U.S. Code 13 for
Drug Abuse Prevention and Control is the
national regulation, which the states adhere
to. According to the 1986 Subsection of. Pub.
L. 99-570 to "knowingly or intentionally to
possess a controlled substance" not lawfully
obtained from a doctor could lead to a year in
prison or a fine, or both on a first conviction.
The penalty for a second offense doubles the
penalties.
THE END..
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