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Points for Consideration by the Patient

• ALWAYS ask your doctor if the medicine prescribed offers the best balance of price and outcomes for you. This simple question will help focus a busy practitioner on his or her available choices. Remember to ask whether the dosing has been adjusted for any compromise in kidney or liver function or other chronic condition that you may have. Diseases can also "interact" with medicines.
• Many HMOs or health care insurers may not pay for some medicines. This can impact your doctor's prescribing authority and the pharmacist's ability to fill your prescription. Write the payer to complain. The Patient's Bill of Rights may restore your access to the medicine which will give the best results!
• Tell your doctor if new symptoms develop after you start taking the drug(s) prescribed. This can protect you from early stages of Bad Med Syndrome. Some problems caused by medicines themselves are easily reversible if they are caught early. If you are found to have had a reaction to a medicine, ask your doctor to report the problem to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This reporting is critical to maintaining safe and effective medicines.
• Keep follow-up appointments with your doctor and for laboratory tests. Many drugs must be monitored closely.
• If you go to any other health care provider, tell him or her of all medications you are taking currently-prescription and nonprescription. This is also a common source of problems-people often think that all doctors have all of their medical history simply because they are doctors. Doctors are not clairvoyant. Tell them your complete history in order to get the best possible results. Remember any herbal medicines you might be taking.
• This is controversial, but I think it is smart to ask your doctor if there is a gag rule he or she is working under which restricts him or her to a limited formulary and lower-cost medicines. There may be a conflict of interest in the advice he or she is giving you.

When You Get Your Prescription Drug(s) from Your Pharmacist

• OPEN THE BAG. Unfortunately, many people don't use the considerable education and help that their pharmacist can provide. Many prescription bags are stapled shut, with the brief patient information sheet on the inside.
• You'll be glad if you open the bag! This gives you a chance (on a refill prescription) to see if the pills look the same as before. It is also a chance to look over the dose and make sure you know how often to take it. Make sure you understand this. A few minutes reading the information about the medicine can actually save your life.
• READ THE LABEL carefully! This can be also be a lifesaving two minutes.
• Check that both the name of the drug and the disorder are specified. If these are missing, ask your pharmacist to call your doctor for permission to add them.
• If this is a refill, check to see that the drug in the bottle is the same as the drug in your original supply. If it is not the same, ask your pharmacist to explain the difference.
• There are more than 1,000 drug names that "look alike" in print or "sound alike" in speech. Examples: Acutrim-Accutane, cyclosporinecycloserine, Prilosec-Prozac, Xanax-Zantac. Mistaking one drug for the other can lead to serious problems. "Sound-alikes" cause problems when a prescription is given by telephone. Listing the disorder on the prescription will help the pharmacist realize the mistake. Also, many of the most-often prescribed drugs are pictured in the Color Chart insert in this book.