Sometimes doctors do not know what they're prescribing. If I was the patient, I'll be a bit concerned of who I'm seeing. My advice is to doctors - if you don't know what it is, or what you're prescribing, don't prescribe it. Refer the patient to another doctor that may know, or prescribe an alternative medicine that you do know, or seek help from another doctor or pharmacist.
A customer drops in a script that said:
Compounded acne cream with clindamycin or erthromycin 50g
First of all, the doctor writes 2 active ingredients. Secondly, there's no strength. Thirdly, no ingredients has been specified.
So I call the doctor to clarify what she means.
Me: Hi doctor. Just need to clarify what ingredients and strength for this acne cream?
Dr: Oh I don't have a formula. Ain't you a compounding chemist?
Me: No we're not. But depending on the ingredient, we can make some extemporaneous preparations. You just need to let me know what ingredients are required.
Dr: Oh I don't know. Just send them to a compounding chemist. They will know.
Really? So I call my contact at a compounding chemist and asked all my pharmacy colleagues. They have no idea what the doctor is talking about.
All I could do is, give the script back to the patient, and told him the doctor wants him to go to a compounding chemist to get it made. Good luck.
But why would a doctor prescribe a cream she doesn't even know what the formula is????!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment