How can we reduce medication errors? The FDA says with ‘blister packs!

How can we reduce medication errors? The FDA says ‘blister packs.’

According to the FDA, over 1.3 million people are injured annually due to medication mistakes, which include dispensing errors in U.S. hospitals and pharmacies. Roger Bate, an economist and public health expert at the American Enterprise Institute, believes it may be safer to receive your medications in blister packs, whether dispensed locally or shipped by mail, and the FDA seems to agree. ADV-Care have been dispensing all its medication in its original manufacturer container including plaster packs.

The FDA supports use of blister packs to tackle problems of medication errors:

“Thoughtful use of unit-of-use container closures (e.g., blister packaging, calendar packaging, sachets, and pouches) that can be dispensed intact to patients may help to reduce medication errors. Such packaging may minimize certain medication dispensing errors that can occur when repackaging from a bulk container into patient-specific containers.”

ADV-Care Pharmacy Do Not Deal With Loose Pills

ADV-Care Pharmacy, do not deal with loose pills at all. Instead, they use blister packs or sealed bottles straight from the manufacturer. The fact is that the process of transferring pills at the pharmacy from a large container into a smaller pill bottle for final dispensing has opened the door to human errors in the U.S. and Canada. We avoid these mistakes by dispensing medication in blister packs or its manufacturer sealed packages. They are safer (per the FDA, even!).

“Blister packs from ADV-Care are directly from the manufacturer, eliminating the room for error that is present is U.S. pharmacies where technicians count out each tablet,” said Dr. Patel from PharmacyChecker. “Those blister packs are labeled with the drug name, strength and expiry date. In addition, ADV-Care places another patient prescription label on the medication.”