Active Medications List – Preventing Mistakes
The pharmaceutical drug industry is making millions and millions of dollars every year because of the illnesses of the American people. Although many people look to prescription medication as the solution to their current health problems, it is an unfortunate truth that many of these drugs have side effects that are worse than the initial condition. Because doctors must rely on patient disclosure and incomplete medical histories to determine whether or not a specific drug regimen is appropriate for a certain condition, there are many instances where overprescribing medication and allergic reactions have resulted in an exacerbated situation. Some physicians are proposing that an active medications list is the answer to these problems.
Many people greeted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the government was taking steps to ease the burden of the economic recession on the hard working families and small business owners of this country. On the other hand, there were many provisions in the Act that were greeted with opposition because they represented a huge change in the way that many social service programs and industries were currently operating. Health care reform and the active medications list were some of these more difficult changes.
In case you’ve never heard of active medications list, you should know that it is a concept aimed at reducing over prescribing of medications, especially ones for pain that have a value on the black market, as well as unknowingly prescribing drugs that would interact negatively with medications that the patient was already taking. Under the current system, doctors must trust that patients will accurately disclose which drugs they are currently taking, and in what amounts. Because the only way to verify these claims is through paper records obtained from other physicians and pharmacies, doctors must usually take patients at their word.
If implemented, an active medications list would be a central database or electronic information sharing system that would allow doctors and pharmacists to accurately view patient histories with regard to prescription drugs before establishing a pharmaceutical drug regimen. This sort of electronic health information system is something that would be supported by funding in the ARRA, but many hospitals and pharmacies have yet to implement it because of vague definitions in the Act itself, especially involving meaningful use. There are several financial incentives that have been stipulated to encourage health care institutions to take the first steps, including decreased reimbursement for Medicare providers that fail to implement this change.
