Giving prescription refills is not quite as fun as it used to be. Years ago, we doctors would whip out our prescription pads – often sooner than we should have – and we’d scribble some coded language that pharmacists were trained to decipher. I’m surprised there were not more errors owing to doctors’ horrendous penmanship. On occasion, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would require a pharmaceutical company to change the name of a drug so it wouldn’t be confused with another medicine with a similar name. The name of the heartburn drug Losec was too similar to congestive heart failure drug Lasix, so the former drug name was changed to the familiar Prilosec. Pharmacists Used the Rosetta Stone to Decode Prescriptions Photo Credit Nowadays, we physicians refill medicines with point and click techniques within our electronic medical record (EMR) system. When this works, it’s a breeze. Three clicks and the refill has been transmitted to the patient’s pharmacy. Alert
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.