UNAIR NEWS – A discussion organized by Center for Health Legal Studies and the Center for Human Rights Law, Faculty of Law (FH) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) enter the final day on Friday, January 24, 2020. Elida Zairina, MPH, Ph.D., Apt as the speaker spoke about medication safety for ordinary people at Building C Joint Secretariat of FH Study Center, Campus B.
Elida started the discussion by explaining the number of cases in the community related to misuse of medication (medication error) which is a very common type of medical error. Cases of medication errors can be detrimental to patients, both physically and economically.
“Every drug has benefits, but also has adverse side effects, they can be prevented during the treatment with appropriate use of drugs,” explained the lecturer at Faculty of Pharmacy UNAIR.
Elida said that there were several phases that could cause medication errors including prescribing errors, transcribing errors, dispensing errors, and mistakes in drug delivery (administration).
“What must be done in order to create medication safety, a collaboration team between doctors, pharmacists and nurses. Doctors’ knowledge of drugs is not as much as pharmacists. Meanwhile the pharmacists cannot diagnose but only reviews whether the drugs are suitable or not for the patient. Then the nurse will give the drug to the patient, “he said.
According to Elida, not all medication errors are caused by blame medical personnel. Because at this time the drugs can be purchased anywhere, not only at the pharmacy, so a patient must be smart so medication error can be minimized.
“It has been widely promoted by BPOM that at least we as patients know what kind of drugs we will buy and logos printed on drugs that are colored green, blue, or red,” she explained.
There are several important things that must be considered before buying a drug. Elida said that there were approximately eight things that needed to be considered, the name of the drug and active substance, the logo of the drug, the distribution permit number (NIE), the expiry limit, drug packaging, the name and address of the pharmaceutical industry, indications, and side effects.
In the end of the discussion, Elida conveyed tips to be smart patients to avoid medication errors.
“It can be concluded that there is a way to become an intelligent patient by getting the medicine in the right place, using the right dosage, storing the drug in a safe place, throwing out the expired drug right way,” she concluded . (*)
Author: Febrian Tito Zakaria Muchtar
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
