Drug Interactions & Safety Review

Drug Interactions & Safety Review

This is something we do with every new prescription we fill, even if the patient has had it many times before. Our computer system searches for potential drug interactions or safety problems and sends up a flag if there is even a slight concern. This is then reviewed by a pharmacist who decides what steps to take next. We also ask our technicians to review new prescriptions for completeness, accuracy and any other issues that we should examine.

Further along the line, the pharmacist personally reviews the patient’s medication history and considers whether the new prescription is safe, appropriately dosed, and compatible with the history and other medications.

Any questions the pharmacist has must be resolved before he or she is willing to release the medication to the patient. This may be done by a call to the prescriber, or by a little research in the pharmacy literature, or by an interview with the patient. Clarifications and corrections are documented on the prescription before it is filed.

Your health is of topmost importance and for us to safeguard that, we need to be very careful that what is prescribed to you is safe, appropriate and effective. For this reason, we are always happy to hear any questions or concerns you have about your medication and we welcome your phone calls to clarify things. For you to be at your best, you need to be able to take your medications correctly and confidently. We’ll do whatever we can to bring that about.