The Pharmacist's true Halloween Terror: Medication Errors

I think we all remember the 20/20 piece from last spring-if not here's the video for a reminder. For further comments-here's the ABC blog with many comments on either side-so I won't belabor the topic here....too much ;-)

A positive aspect of this whole topic, however difficult it may be to discuss, is that is acts like a "Call to Action" in the public and in the media (again with the media discussion, Jared...seriously-we get it.) Towards this end, CNN now has an "Empowered Patient" series that encourages patients to be more involved in their health care. This week, the main article deals with minimizing pharmacy errors and ways to talk to your pharmacist and what you can do to minimize pharmacy errors.

I also found a newsletter that you can receive from the Institute of Safe Medication Practices that looks pretty interesting. The ISMP is an entire area that we don't hear anything about-and with the public concern of medication errors, I think we should make this more of an issue and be more proactive about it, rather than reactive.

The more we look at medication distribution and realize that the value that pharmacists add to the health care system is not in distribution but our cognitive services, the further I believe we can push the profession and practice the way we feel it should be practiced. Reducing medication errors are a HUGE area where we can make a difference, but we also need to let the public know that pharmacy is SOOO much more.