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By Dr. Dorothy L. Smith
Expert in safe medication use, author of 23 books for consumers on prescription drugs, and President of Consumer Health Information Corporation
Vol. 1 No. 1
  
 

This newsletter has been launched to address the tremendous need for consumers to better understand how to take their prescription medicines safely. Home medication errors made by patients are linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths a year and costs this country nearly $180 billion in extra medical treatments.

Only when people know how to take control of their medicines can they receive the full benefit of their treatment.
 
 

Medicine Tips:

Patients taking chewable vitamin C tablets should brush their teeth or rinse their mouth after each use. The ascorbic acid in the tablets can stick to the teeth and over time erode the enamel. One patient required 12 crowns after taking high doses of chewable vitamin C.
 
Patients with asthma should not carry their inhalers in their pockets. Some patients have required surgery because they inhaled coins that had gotten stuck in the inhaler.
 
Do you know which direction to pull the ear when administering eardrops? For children younger than 3 years, pull the top of the ear down and back. For children over 3 years and adults, pull the ear up and back. This helps straighten the ear canal so that the drops can reach the eardrum.
 
 

Dr. Dorothy L. Smith is an internationally recognized expert in patient education, patient compliance, and behavior modification programs. She has devoted her career to helping people make informed decisions about health care and use of medications. Dr. Smith is the author of 23 books and has appeared on radio and television programs across the country to increase awareness of the important role consumers play in their prescription drug therapy.

In 1983, she founded Consumer Health Information Corporation, a company internationally recognized for its innovative patient information programs. The organization has produced a broad range of print and audiovisual programs that have helped millions of people learn to make wise decisions about their health and medications. The company is a teaching site for several schools of pharmacy across the United States and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Patient Information and Education.
 

Consumers Need Prescription Drug Information They Can Understand

I have always believed that the patient becomes one of the most important players on the health care team once a treatment has been prescribed. After the doctor has diagnosed the medical problem and the pharmacist has dispensed the prescription medicine, the power...and the responsibility...for taking that medicine is shifted to the patient!

Since no medication can ever be safe and effective UNLESS the patient takes it correctly, it is critical that consumers be given the information they need to carry out this responsibility wisely. We know that something is wrong somewhere when all the research statistics report that up to 50% of all prescription medicines are not being taken correctly. This often leads to unnecessary medical complications and health care costs shooting through the roof!

Many of these costs could be avoided if we were more effective at teaching patients how to take their medications correctly. And as the population ages, more and more people will be requiring prescription medicines. These unnecessary costs related to home medication errors are only going to increase.

I was recently invited to address the Drug Information Association and give my opinion on whether consumers can understand the information they receive about prescription medicines from magazines, the Internet, and the patient information materials they are given from their health care providers.

As I reviewed these materials, I found that the ones meeting patient's needs for practical, readable, and understandable information were few and far between. Also, it is very difficult for consumers to identify prescription medication information they can depend on.

One positive note is that a small but growing number of pharmaceutical companies are developing high quality, "patient-friendly" information called Patient Package Inserts for some of their prescription medicines. Not only are these Patient Package Inserts being written in language consumers can understand, but the information is also approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It's a good idea to ask your doctor or pharmacist if there is a Patient Package Insert for your medicine. It is certainly a source of information you can trust.

Patients have to make decisions about their medicines every day, but they can only make wise decisions if they have the right kind of information. For instance, they need to know what to do if a side effect occurs. Information on side effects needs to be presented in terms that a patient can recognize and understand. It's not enough to say that a medicine can cause a serious liver disease such as hepatitis. A patient needs to know how to recognize the warning symptoms. For example, if they become unusually tired, lose their appetite, have nausea or vomiting, develop a yellow color to the skin or eyes, or have dark-colored urine or pale stools, they should call their doctor.

When a person's health is at stake, they will do all they can to protect it. Each person decides if the benefits of the product are greater than the risks they are personally willing to take. Once consumers and patients receive information they can understand, they will be in a better position to ask questions and determine how to manage their medicines safely and wisely. Medicines will have the chance to work, as they should. Health care costs will go down. People will be healthier.

 
 

Staggering Cost of Home Medication Errors:
The Overlooked Cost in Prescription Drug Coverage

Expanding prescription drug coverage for senior citizens is on everybody's mind these days. Everyone seems to be focused on the cost of buying the medicines. However, nobody seems to be addressing the exorbitant costs that result when patients do not know how to take their medicines correctly.

The cost to purchase a prescription medicine is minuscule when compared to the cost of treating the complications that result when people do not know how to take their medicine correctly.

  • In 2000, the estimated total cost to purchase all the prescription medicines in the United States was approximately $111 billion.
  • The estimated cost to treat the complications resulting from home medication errors totaled another $177 billion in extra medical treatments provided by doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes. On top of that, add in at least another $100 billion a year to cover employer costs resulting from absenteeism and loss of productivity from home medication errors. All together, this amounts to at least $277 billion in costs from home medication errors.
  • No dollar value can be put on the most important outcome--the loss in the patient's quality of life.

It doesn't make sense to spend $111 billion to purchase prescription medicines, and then spend an additional $177 billion in medical costs related to medication errors and at least $100 billion in lost productivity because patients were never given the information they needed to manage their treatment correctly.

Research shows that when patients are given the information they need to take a medication safely, home medication errors are cut in half and people have fewer side effects, fewer doctor visits, fewer hospital admissions — and a higher quality of life. Not only do patients get more benefit from their medicines, but health care costs go down!

 

 

Consumer Health Information Corporation is an internationally recognized leader in the development and production of patient education programs for pharmaceutical companies, managed care organizations, and consumers.

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