Medical Centric

Medication Safety: Everything You Should Know

Uncategorized / By

Medication Safety

  • Sometimes, it’s the medication itself that can end up causing problems for us instead of solving them.
  • We can make a mistake and end up causing ourselves harm by mismanaging our medicine.
  • Some relevant ways of making mistakes when it comes to medication include:                                                 
  • Taking too much of it
  • Taking the wrong medicine
  • Mixing up your doses
  • Accidently concocting a harmful medicine cocktail
  • Not taking the medicine on time

How to Take Medication Safely

  • The best way to ensure medication safety is to properly read the label.
  • It may have far too much information on it but reading it can help you select the right medication at the right time.
  • The name of the medicine, who it’s for, its purpose, and its dosage are the most important details you have to know.
  • It is also important to know how the medicine is administered and how you should store it.
  • Beyond that, there might be certain special instructions that you should check.
  • For capsules, make sure you gulp them down with water to make sure you don’t choke.
  • Another option is to crush the capsules and mix them with either water or soft food to get them inside you.
  • On the other hand, liquid medication is reliant on your measurement.
  • Shake the medicine’s container if required and carefully pour out the amount of medicine you need.
  • Double check to ensure that your measurement is correct before you gulp it down.
  • A kitchen spoon is not very reliable when it comes to measurement, which makes it advisable for you to have a measuring device at hand for liquid medicine.

How to Store Medicine Safely

  • You can find the proper guide for medicine storage on the labels since medicines have varying storage requirements based on their nature.
  • Some steps to ensure when storing medicine are:
    1. Never remove the label from the medicine container.
    2. Store medication for different people separately or use color code to differentiate between them.
  • Do not move medicine from their containers unless you have been told to by a health professional.
  1. Avoid storing all your medicine in the bathroom because it can get quite humid and warm.
  2. Make sure to keep medicine out of the reach of children.

Ensuring Medication Safety for Children

  • You need to be especially careful when administering medicine to children. Make sure you follow the dosage details offered by the doctor.
  • Make sure the medicine container is always sealed and out of the reach of your child.
  • Do not acquaint medicine with candy.
  • Have all adults be vigilant about keeping children away from medicine.
  • Have the number for poison control ready just in case.

What to Do with Expired Medicine

  • You can simply dump expired medicine into the trash, or
  • Flush them down the toilet.
  • You can also give them to the local pharmacy if they accept expired medicine.
  • Give them to a hazardous waste collection facility if they accept medication.

If you somehow administer the wrong medication or accidentally take in expired medicine, be sure to seek medical help immediately if your body reacts.