Lee-ann McInnes's mother takes a combination of sixteen medications a day to treat a range of conditions. But alarming dizzy spells caused the 76-year-old's daughter to seek help.
"One of the pharmacists here picked up that she had two types of the same medications, just different brands that the doctor had prescribed. So the pharmacists wrote to the doctor and the doctor cut one of these medications out and she's been fine ever since."
A new report into medical safety says too often such mix-ups don't end so well. The study was written by Professor Libby Roughead, from the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre at the University of South Australia.
"At the worst case scenario medication problems can result in death and that's certainly what we want to avoid. That's the worst case scenario, but it can happen. So it may range from the mild all the way to very serious."
The report found there were a quarter of a million hospital admissions every year because of medicine-related problems with another 400,000 emergency department presentations. Seven out of ten involved adverse reactions from using multiple pharmaceuticals. And half the hospital cases were preventable.
The National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Doctor Chris Freeman, says the findings highlight the need for medicine-related harm reduction to become a national priority for health care decision makers.
"We have systems that may fail us sometimes. Sometimes we may prescribe the wrong medication. A patient might just inadvertently take the wrong dose. So no-one in particular is to blame for this."
Those with language difficulties are particularly vulnerable. Patients and pharmacists are encouraged to use free on-call translation services. And while the introduction of My Health Record as an online summary of a patient's medical information has sparked its share of debate, the report's author's are unequivocal about its benefits, saying it will be invaluable in reducing errors and inappropriate drug use. Professor Roughead says it will provide an unprecedented amount of information.
"For the first time all pharmacies from around the country will be able to look at history, regardless of who dispensed it. Doctors will be able to look at that. So we will have a complete record because right now most health professionals don't have a complete record."
Chemists, like Melbourne pharmacist Jarrod McMaugh, are also using robots to dispense medications.
"Human error is always a consideration, always. Just like every other profession we can make an error and if we make an error it can be disastrous. So it is an added layer of protection against that. It doesn't eliminate it completely but it makes it a lot better."
It is helping to tackle a health care problem that is estimated to cost one-point-four billion dollars a year.
