Not infrequently Express Scripts, Medco, or other similar companies send a fax to alert me that my patient is taking two similar medications. Occasionally it’s intentional, but most of the time it means something went wrong.
Sometimes I change a patients’ medication to something similar to achieve better efficacy, to minimize side effects, or due to cost. Although I always put the changes in writing for the patient, telling them what to start and what to stop, this doesn’t always work. Patients may get an automatic refill of the original medication from the pharmacy or call it in when they notice a pill bottle is almost empty. Sometimes they go by a medication list they’ve generated, but not updated, rather than the printout I give them.
Sometimes patients end up on two similar medications after getting one from a specialist who doesn’t realize a patient is taking something, because the patient didn’t bring the list I gave them, and they don’t remember everything they take. For example I might have the patient on lisinopril for hypertension, and their cardiologist prescribes the similar benazepril.
A similar medication error happens when we tell patients to stop a medication and they don’t for similar reasons as above.
So the faxes are helpful when these things are caught, but it would be better if it occurred at the the time the prescription is sent to the pharmacy. Ideally the pharmacy computer would automatically connect to the physician’s electronic medical record (EMR), particularly the primary care doctor, and compare medication lists. If they had medications to refill that didn’t match the EMR record, they would call to double check if the patient could not give them a good reason for the discrepancy. In addition, the pharmacy computer could keep track of all the chronic medications a patient has filled. If the patient doesn’t get the prescription refilled in a timely manner, their computer would query the physician computer to make sure it was still an active medication. If so they would call the patient (and maybe in the future talk to the patient’s medication list carried on their computer/mobile device) and remind them to refill their medication, assuming someone hadn’t stopped it, the patient was taking samples, or some other good reason.
If you use a program such as Quicken, you can download credit card and other transactions and reconcile them with entries you’ve entered. Comparing medications would be a similar process.
There are certainly barriers to such a solution. Electronic health records would need to have medication fields standardized, and there would need to be protocols to exchange the information. I’m not sure, but I think some of this already exists. Of course there are legal issues such as HIPAA.
As John Lennon said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
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