Trumm Drug

Patient counseling is an important tool in the prevention of errors.

Patient counseling is an important tool in the prevention of errors.

It’s all but impossible to eliminate drug errors. But pharmacy experts say pharmacist counseling of patients represents a key safeguard.
Counseling is a conversation between pharmacist and patient about a prescription’s intended purpose, the dosage, the directions and potential side effects. Errors, when they occur, often become evident when a pharmacist talks directly to the person who will take the medication.
“If the pharmacist counseled the patient, eight of 10 errors that get through now would be caught”, says Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
Pharmacy experts are less sure whether drug errors can be reduced by state pharmacy boards imposing tougher sanctions on pharmacists who make mistakes. As it is, the boards rarely suspend pharmacists’ licenses. Mark Trumm believes the best way to handle mistakes is to establish a non-punitive environment in which pharmacists and technicians are comfortable sharing information on an error when it occurs, and then learn from that error to prevent it from happening again. “No pharmacist ever wants to make a mistake.”
Trumm Drug Pharmacists make every effort to counsel every patient on medications that are new to them and request patients contact us with any questions. A Trumm Drug Pharmacist reviews the previous day’s new prescriptions to try to catch any errors. If an error is caught the patient is contacted immediately to correct the error. A log is kept as part of our quality assurance program and any errors are discussed at monthly staff meetings in an effort to prevent the same error from happening again. We always have had the goal of zero defects in prescription dispensing as a top priority. Patient counseling is a valuable tool in reaching that goal.