Article Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/health/pharmacists-medication-errors.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
Summary: All over the US, there have been reported cases of people being hospitalized, even as far as to the point of facing death because of pharmacists in chain drugstores are handing out the wrong prescription or the wrong kind of medicine. Turns out, pharmacists have to do a number of tasks from giving prescriptions, manning the drive through, calling doctors, consulting patients, almost simultaneously, making it a very demanding and dangerous job. Pharmacists describe an understaffed, high pressure work space with no time for breaks, and a lot of room for error. Many mishaps do not even go announced because they are settled with the family privately. When pharmacists took a survey, 600 pharmacists said that they "agree" or "strongly agree" that they feel pressured to meet standards that may interfere with patient care.
Reaction: It may be just in the area that I live in, but I've never experienced a drug store like Walgreens or a CVS that was super busy at the pharmaceutical area. However, I can understand how high pressured and high demanding the job is. Without the proper help, or the proper breaks for the pharmacists or any health care professionals in general, the consequences for their patients can be fatal. I'm shocked and sad to hear about the different patients that have suffered the consequences of these mishaps that were described in the article, including a patient that was given a powerful chemotherapy drug instead of an antidepressant that died two weeks later. I understand if the patients are unable to identify drugs that are prescribed in a bottle because of the complicated chemical name, but one of the other cases described was a man whose eye had swollen up because he was given ear drops instead of eye drops for a mild irritation. Yes, the pharmacist is at fault, but it is that hard to look at the bottle at least once in the few days he had used them for already and notice that they were actually ear drops?
Connection: The high pressure, high demanding working conditions connect back to the working conditions in the Gilded Age. Back then, people worked for 10 hours a day, maybe more, every single day, and it took a toll on their bodies and probably mental health, affecting their work. That reflects in the article, pharmacists having a long list of things to do, all while never even receiving a lunch break. One pharmacist quit his job because he was working 13 hours shifts with no breaks for lunch and dinner.
Questions for discussion: What solutions can you think up to solve this problem? Do you feel that the health care professionals are more at fault, or are the patients a little bit to blame?
Becoming a licensed Pharmacist is an incredibly difficult a demanding process so simply training more people isn't a very viable solution but it seems like there are some tasks that don't require as much chemical and medical expertise. Maybe a new type of assistant job is needed to be a sort of in-between for the pharmacists and the doctors or patients so Pharmacists don't need to be so overworked and less likely to make mistakes. Perhaps these Junior Pharmacists only have minor degrees in medicine or majored in accounting but pass a certain biology test. There are many possibilities for adding a less experienced assistant or intern so that the actual Pharmacists feel less overworked.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't many reasonable solutions to this problem. I feel that if the patients just took the time to check if they got the right prescription, these cases could be minimized. From what I read, it is already hard enough for the pharmacist to do their jobs, so it is more on the patient for being careless. I do think an assistant or intern could be beneficial to pharmacist, taking on the more trivial tasks like double checking prescriptions or just organizing. This way, it could soften the load on the Pharmacist and help reduce mistakes as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the patients that receive the medication should check what it is, a simple google search can make all the difference. There aren't many things to do to solve this problem besides reducing working hours. An easy thing to do would be to put up a sign telling patients to check that they were given the correct medication before they leave the pharmacy. I believe it is more the healthcare professional's fault, but the patients should know to check and not trust blindly.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a simple Google search would help, however, for people whose first language isn't English, it may be hard for them to check. Especially because we have many immigrants from different countries whose first language is not English, it is harder for them to check the chemical names.
DeleteI think that these sorts of mistakes are bound to happen in a case such as this where one person has to cover many jobs. These pharmacists have a lot to handle, and with so much, the vital part of their job can become just like other busy work and then mistakes happen more frequently. I think a solution to this problem would be hiring more staff, who would not have to necessarily be trained professionals, to do the more mindless and not as important tasks that usually overload the pharmacists. This would help the pharmacists focus on handing out correct prescriptions and reduce the likelihood of a mistake in the process. I also believe that patients should always be paying attention and not just assume that what they have been given is correct. I also understand that this may not occur to many people unless there is an obvious sign the medication is incorrect and they probably would not think to research every medication they receive.
ReplyDeleteI think that these pharmacies should be forced to hire more people so that this won't happen. If there is nothing forcing them to hire more staff, then they won't. I also think that patients should be more careful before taking any pharmaceuticals.
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