I admit it: there’s a lot of information packed onto a prescription medicine label. It’s all appropriate and necessary information, but it can also be overwhelming and confusing to interpret the abbreviations and small print. To add to the confusion, one pharmacy’s label may place information in a different location than another pharmacy’s label does, creating a frustrating game of “hide and seek.”
Understanding your medicine label gives you the power to take what’s inside correctly and protect your health. So here’s a quick 1~2~3~4 outline of the key information you should know how to find on that label:
- The name, address, and phone number of your pharmacy – call the phone number when you have about a 5-day supply left of your medicine and you have refills remaining (see #4). If you need to get a prescription renewed (meaning that you have no remaining refills), the name, address, and phone number of the pharmacy may be needed by your doctor’s office to call in your prescription promptly.
- Prescription number – often listed as a number after the letters “Rx,” each of your medicines has its own unique number. Know your prescription number when you call the pharmacy to refill your medicine.
- Name of medicine – make sure you know what you are taking, as well as the dose and strength. The number and unit of measure listed is the amount of medicine in one pill, so your dose would be higher than that if you have been instructed to take 2 or more pills at one time.
- Number of refills remaining – this is the number of times you can refill your medicine at the pharmacy before you will need a new prescription from your health care provider.