BE A PREPARED PATIENT

HOME > BE A PREPARED PATIENT > COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR DOCTORS > PREPARED PATIENT RESOURCE

Understanding a New Prescription

An important part of being a prepared patient involves understanding your prescription medications. Before leaving your doctor’s office, you should know: 

  • the name of the drug you have been prescribed
  • why you should take it
  • when and how to take it  (for example, one pill twice a day, two pills once a day, on an empty stomach, with water, after eating, in the morning, before bed, etc.)
  • how long before you should see results from the medication
  • how to report any problems or side effects you may observe

If you don’t get this vital information, ask for it before you leave.

Your Pharmacist: A Wealth of Information

Whether you have a question about a prescription or an over-the-counter drug, your pharmacist can help sort out problems like drug interactions, for example, letting you know if your daily calcium supplement might make your prescription medication less effective.

Don’t be shy about asking the pharmacist a question. Counseling for new prescription drugs is a legal requirement in many states. If you're concerned about privacy, try saying, “I would like to ask the pharmacist some questions in private.”

Safety First

It may sound obvious, but before you leave the pharmacy or take your first pill, make sure you have the correct medication. Mix-ups can and do happen. If you’re unsure whether you have the right drug, call the pharmacy or use an online medication guide to check. We recommend the following:

  • ConsumerMedSafety.org offers general advice on drug safety, including over-the-counter drugs.
  • MedicineNet.com (owned and operated by WebMD) -provides tips for safely taking your medications.

Once you get home, it’s time to take and store your medication properly. This includes reading and following the directions on inserts and labels.

Look Out for These Red Flags

  • “Take as Much as You Want”-Your prescription label should clearly state boundaries of how much medicine to use and how often. No medicine – including any over-the-counter medicine – is safe in unlimited quantities.
  • You Feel Worse, Not Better- If a drug seems to be making you sick, call your doctor right away.
  • Sound-Alike Drugs-Drugs with similar-sounding names lead to thousands of medication errors each year. Even if the name of the label is correct, if the medicine looks different than what you’re used to, ask the pharmacist why.

We’ve found these sites to be useful and helpful for understanding, tracking, and remembering to take your medications:

Understand Your Medications

  • AARP’s Drugs A-Z is a searchable database that provides information about what each drug is commonly used to treat, its interactions, side effects and other information.
  • Advanced Drug Safety can "help you identify, diagnose and resolve drug interactions and combined side effect risks," according to its creator, PharmaSurveyor.

Track Your Medications

  • Medicine Wallet Card from Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)  offers a printable wallet-size prescriptions card for you to take with to your doctor or pharmacist. The form includes information like the medicine name, color, dosage, what it's for and what not to take with it.
  • My Medication Tracker, produced by ConsumerReportsHealth.org, is software that you can download onto your computer to assist with keeping track of your mediations. Information you enter is kept private and stored only on your desktop.

Remember to Take Your Medications

  • MyMedSchedule allows you to manage your meds online, set up text message reminders and print checklists.
  • RememberItNow can help you organize and remember to take your medicines. Some services are free, and others involve monthly fees. 
  • Companies like RxVitality have invented "intelligent" pill bottles that use lights and sounds to remind you to take your pills.

 

MORE COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR DOCTORS RESOURCES
Getting the Most Out of a Doctor’s Appointment
Talking About Medical Tests
Asking Your Doctor Questions
Understanding a New Prescription
Talking About Your Symptoms