What to Ask the Pharmacist and Doctor About a New Prescription

A Rule for This Page: You Ask, They Answer

Everything below is a question. Nothing below is an answer, and that is deliberate. What a medicine does, how it interacts with the other seven things in the kitchen drawer, and whether it suits your parent are questions for a pharmacist or a doctor who knows the full picture. Your job is to make sure they are asked out loud and that the answers end up written down.

That is not a small job. In most households the medication information exists in four places — the label, the leaflet, something the doctor said, and something a neighbour mentioned — and none of them are dated. One sheet, one date, one handwriting fixes a surprising amount.

Two practical things before you start. Take the complete list of everything your parent takes with you, including the things bought off a shelf, and take it to the pharmacy counter as well as the doctor's office. And ask at the counter rather than on the phone; pharmacists are more available than most people assume, and a two-minute conversation at the counter beats a leaflet every time.

• Bring the full list: prescriptions, over-the-counter items, supplements, creams
• Ask at the pharmacy counter, not by phone, where you can hand the list over
• Write answers on one dated sheet in the words you are given
• Never write your own interpretation next to a medicine name

Questions to Ask the Doctor Before You Leave the Room

The prescribing appointment is the cheapest place to get these answers. Once you are out of the door, the same questions cost you a phone call, a hold queue and a callback two days later.

The most useful one is also the simplest: what is this for, in one sentence I can write down. You are asking for a sentence you can repeat to a pharmacist, to a sibling, and to a hospital in six months. If the sentence you are given is long, ask for a shorter one.

The review question is the one families almost never ask, and it is the one that stops a temporary prescription quietly becoming permanent. Ask when this is next looked at, and who books that.

• What is this medicine for, in one sentence I can write down?
• How long is it meant to be taken — days, months, or ongoing?
• Does it replace something on the current list, or is it added to it?
• Would you like the pharmacist to check it against everything else my parent takes?
• What should I write down at home while my parent is taking it?
• When would you want to hear from us about it, and on which number?
• When is this prescription next reviewed, and who books that?

Questions to Ask the Pharmacist at the Counter

The pharmacist is the most accessible expert in this whole system and the least used. There is no appointment, no waiting list, and they can see the full list in front of them.

Hand over your list and ask them to check the new item against it. Then ask the practical questions that decide whether the medicine actually gets taken correctly at home: whether it can go in the weekly organiser or has to stay in its own packaging, how it should be stored, and whether it comes in another form.

Ask for the printed information sheet and ask them to write the timing on the label rather than telling you. Labels stay with the box. Conversations do not.

• Can you check this against the full list I have here?
• How and when is it meant to be taken, and can that be printed on the label?
• Is there a written information sheet you can give me with it?
• Does it come in another form if swallowing a tablet is difficult?
• Can it go in a weekly pill organiser, or must it stay in its own packaging?
• How should it be stored, and does it need to be refrigerated?
• What should we do with unused tablets and the old packaging?
• If we are late collecting, how many days of supply do we have?

Questions About Cost, Refills and Supply

Supply problems cause more missed doses than confusion does. A prescription with no refills left, discovered on a Saturday, is a completely avoidable weekend.

Ask how many refills are on it and when it expires, then put a reminder in your phone for a week before you would run out. Ask how many days ahead the pharmacy wants the request — it varies, and asking too late is the usual cause of a gap.

Cost is worth raising plainly. Ask what a month costs with your parent's insurance, and ask who has to approve a lower-cost version — the pharmacist or the doctor. Nobody finds that question embarrassing at a pharmacy counter; they are asked it several times a day.

• What does a month cost, and what does it cost with the insurance we have?
• Is there a lower-cost version, and who approves that — you or the doctor?
• How many refills are on this prescription, and when does it expire?
• How many days before running out should we request the next one?
• Can this be set on automatic refill, and how do we cancel that later?
• If this branch is out of stock, can it be transferred to another branch the same day?

Questions About What to Write Down

These five questions take under a minute and they are the ones that make the record usable by somebody else — a hospital at two in the morning, a sibling covering a week, a new doctor next spring.

Spelling matters more than it should. Medicine names look alike, and a name written down approximately is a name that cannot be looked up. Ask for the exact spelling and the generic name, and read both back.

Ask what the tablet looks like, so that an unlabelled box in a bathroom cabinet can be identified later. Ask for the prescription number, because that is what you will be asked for on the phone. And ask the last question — which details do you want repeated back — because it invites the professional to correct you while you are still standing there.

• What is the exact spelling, and is there a generic name as well?
• What does the tablet or the packaging look like?
• Which doctor prescribed it, and on what date?
• What is the prescription number, for when I call?
• Which of these details would you like me to repeat back before I go?

Where the Answers Go: One Line Per Medicine

A medication log is a table, not a diary. One line per medicine, one column per fact, so that the whole page can be read at a glance by someone who has never seen it before.

Use these columns: name as printed on the label, generic name, what it is for in the doctor's one sentence, prescribed by, date started, review date, pharmacy and branch, prescription number, refills remaining. Write it in pen, and when something changes, rule a line through the row and start a new one underneath rather than rubbing anything out. The crossed-out rows are the history, and someone will ask for it.

Put the date the sheet was last checked at the top. An undated list is treated as unreliable by every professional who sees it, and rightly so.

Keep the leaflets in one envelope behind the log rather than in the box, in the drawer, in the bag. Photograph the log after every change and send it to whoever else looks after your parent, so that there is never a second version in circulation.

• One line per medicine, one column per fact
• Columns: name, generic name, what for, prescribed by, date started, review date, pharmacy, prescription number, refills left
• Rule through changed rows, never erase — the crossings-out are the history
• Date the sheet every time you check it
• Keep all leaflets in one envelope behind the log

Questions