Michigan Drug Use: Will Drug Rehab Demand Be Reduced by New Software?

A new computer program designed to reduce prescription drug errors has been giving the thumbs up by doctors in Michigan, and not a moment too soon. The majority of deaths from prescription drugs or trips to the ER due to prescription drug-related incidents were, one way or another, taking the drugs in error. This software could save many lives, and lower admissions to detox and drug rehab in Michigan.

What are the errors being made that are causing all the trouble?

Patients who have an allergy to the drug being prescribed, or another drug in the same class, are not being identified.

Hand-written prescriptions are misread by pharmacists and the patient is given the wrong drug.

The patient is already taking other prescriptions the doctor doesn’t know about and which could have serious side effects if taken with other drugs. This happens when the patient doesn’t remember the names of their drugs, doesn’t tell the doctor them, or the doctor doesn’t ask.

The software has been tested by doctors for two years now. In that time, 3.3 million drugs were prescribed. That’s a lot of drugs. And for those taking medication with a high potential for addiction and dependency, it’s also a lot of drug detox and rehab.

That aside, the software identified 1 million potentially hazardous drug-to-drug interactions and 100,000 allergy alerts. As a result, 423,000 prescriptions were changed. In other words, nearly half a million people’s lives would have been at risk had the doctors not used that software.

The implications are staggering – that’s nearly 13% of all prescriptions. One of every eight. And that doesn’t even include prescriptions misread by pharmacists, patients who can’t or don’t give their doctor correct information, or those already addicted and are going from one doctor to another faking symptoms to get drugs. Add those people to the mix and who knows how high the ‘error rate’ would be – a lot higher than 13%, that’s for sure.

I don’t know how much this software will do to prevent prescription drug addiction, dependency and abuse, but anything that helps get the prescription drug situation under control deserves support. No doubt this will save thousands of lives, and prevent many from having to find a drug detox or drug rehab program in Michigan to handle their prescription drug problems.

University of Michigan study shows marijuana consumption increases among teenagers – Lloyd Johnston, director of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan, talks about the 2011 report on alcohol and substance abuse of teens.

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