Providence Regional Medical Center Everett is urging people to take an active role in their own medical care with an easy but critically important step.
List all of your medications, both prescription and over the counter, including their dosage. It’s also easy to carry a card with that information in your wallet or purse.
All consumers need to know they are responsible for taking an active role in managing their medications, said Public Relations Manager Cheri Russum.
Being able to identify which prescription and over-the-counter medications patients are taking will help them receive better, more effective health care — and may even save their life.
Medication lists help reduce the risk of improper dosing, duplicating medications, harmful drug interactions, and side effects.
A Medication list of all prescription and over-the-counter medications an individual is taking and is a simple way to share this information with health care providers.
Carrying a Medication List and bringing it to all medical appointments will help consumers stay safe.
Each year, 7,000 people die in the U.S. from preventable errors having to do with medications while they are under hospital care (Institute of Medicine Report 2001). Overall, 82 percent of U.S. adults and 56 percent of children take at least one medicine daily; 29 percent of adults take five or more medicines daily, and 27 percent of children take two or more (Boston University 2006).
Half of all potential major drug-to-drug interactions involve a nonprescription medicine.
Physicians often don’t know about their patients’ nonprescription medicine use because they do not ask patients, patients don’t tell their doctors, or both (Journal of the American Medical Association 2002).
Last March, during Patient Safety Awareness Week, PRMC Everett began handing out paper Medication Lists. Consumers can also download an electronic Medication List on the hospital’s website: www.providence.org/everett.
“Patient safety goes well beyond hospital walls.,” said Paula Bradlee, Director of Organizational Quality at PRMC. Patients can help prevent medication errors by carrying a medication list with them at all times.
“Taking the few minutes to download the form, fill it out and tuck it into a purse or wallet, could make the difference between life and death in an emergency,” she said.
More information is available on the Providence Regional Medical Center’s Web site.
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