by Jesse Bannister

Created on: March 26, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

"During the study period, the researchers identified 149 medication errors in 93 patients, who were taking an average of 10.9 medications each. The most frequent type of error (56 percent of all errors) was patient error. An additional 13 percent of the errors were prescription errors; 13 percent were delivery errors; 10 percent were availability errors, when a patient did not have at least a 24-hour supply of a medication; and 8 percent were reporting errors, which occurred when a patient could not give the researchers enough information to identify the type, dosage, or frequency of a medication. Adverse events were associated with 48 (32 percent) of the errors, including 17 hospitalizations, three outpatient procedures, nine episodes of rejection and six failed transplants." - Science Daily

It's not hard to imagine errors among transplant patients, especially patients who've never taken huge amounts of medication before.

Right after transplant I was chatting with our coordinator about medications and she commented in an offhand way that it was nice to deal with a patient with a medical background for that aspect of things. She said that they had patients in the past who were almost functionally illiterate. I couldn't imagine trying to negotiate the post-tx drugs without being able to read properly.

Right after my release from the hospital I was taking a total of 50 pills every day. I thought at first that I'd never be able to remember all the meds and doses. My transplant team provides each patient with a chart that has a photo of the drug, the dosage, and when to take it. It's a great tool and soon I was comfortable with what I was taking, how often, and how much. As dosages decreased and we dropped medications entirely, it became much easier to keep track.

I also found a great little on line tool that allows me to track my meds and also print a wallet card to carry with me as well as a chart to post for ready reference. It's called My Med Schedule and I recommend it for anyone who takes multiple prescriptions.

Of course the statistic cited in the article above about transplant team errors can be likely. The nurse I mentioned the other day made a potential med error with me during my next to last clinic visit. My CellCept dosage is 500mg three times a day. That's a total of 1500mg every day. She wanted to know "How much CellCept are you taking everyday?" OK, to me and the way I was trained that means total dosage - 1500mg. I said as much, then she asked "How

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