Next, the Lexi-Drug ID database can help identify a patient’s medications. Too often, we admit patients who do not bring their outpatient medications and/or cannot recall their home medications or dosages, and any medication errors during admission can be quite dangerous for our patients. The “Drug ID” function on the bottom of the Lexi-Comp’s index bar allows for quick navigation to this function.
Our options include searching by imprint, dosage form, shape, and/or colors to help identify the medication of interest. Here, the imprint “p” on a white capsule-shaped tablet leaves us with 8 matches, which leads us to MSIR 30 mg when the patient notes that he “takes that pill three or four times a day when my knee pain acts up.”
Of course, in real-life this process is not always as clean-cut and simple as this example, but this tool can be incredibly helpful when admitting patients.
The “Adult Patient Education” database is also worth a look. This function can be reached either from the list of databases from the app homescreen, or by clicking on the “Patient Education” button at the top of any drug monograph.
These patient education reports include information appropriate for a patient, including topics such as pronunciation, brand names, key warnings, reasons not to take the medication, what the medication is used for, how it works, how it is best taken, what to do if a dose is missed, possible side effects, etc., in question-and-answer language appropriate for most patients. Moreover, these reports also have a jump function for easier navigation. These reports can be printed for patients if your device is connected to a printer (not the case for me yet), or otherwise used to verbally highlight the major points for your patients when prescribing new medications in the outpatient or inpatient settings.
