Forgetting to pack medicine for vacations can have serious consequences

By Jamie Durant
Morning News Health/Environmental Reporter
Published: July 25, 2008

Summer is here and people are packing up to go on vacation, but when they forget to pack important medications, their vacations can quickly turn into a headache.

Jerry Jebaily, family medicine associate director of the McLeod Family Residency Program, said there are many problems associated with forgetting to pack such items as blood pressure medicines, diabetic supplies and many other daily medications, but they often can be remedied with a phone call.

“We do get phone calls from people who are away, asking us to call in prescriptions to a pharmacy out of state,” he said.

But, Jebaily said, making a decision to go without medications during a vacation can have dire consequences.

“There are some medications that are critical, like medicine for heart failure or blood thinners,” he said. “If they (vacationers) fail to take their medicine, they could end up in the hospital.”

Some chain pharmacies, such as Walgreens and CVS, offer a refill service that automatically allows prescriptions from one location to be seen at another location, without any stressful phone calls.

Even if a pharmacy in the vacation area doesn’t have a transfer service like Walgreens, patients still can get quick refills if they take certain measures to be prepared, Jebaily said.

“Call your doctor to get the refills called in to a local pharmacy,” he said. “Also, have a phone book open to have a local pharmacy’s information ready.”

Although many people might feel they are inconveniencing their doctor by calling for a short-term refill, Jebaily said it’s better than the alternative.

“If it’s for a week or two weeks, the doctor is not going to mind doing that,” he said.

Even small town local pharmacies have ways to make it easy for people who forget or lose their medications while on vacation.

Dan Bushart, a pharmacist and owner of the Medicine Cabinet in Lake City, said his shop offers one-time transfers for patient while they are out of town. Usually, he said, the transfers are for enough medication to last anywhere from one week to a month.

“I think where you really have the problems is in the beach areas or the vacation spots,” he said. “That’s where they get a lot of this. With us, it’s every now and then. Lake City’s not really a hot vacation spot.”

Dr. David Rodriguez, a family practitioner at the Lake City Medical Clinic, a sister company of Carolinas Hospital System, said the problem often is more of an inconvenience for the patient than the doctors.

“Certainly, if they were out of state, that would be a big problem, because our license only covers the state you have privileges in,” he said. “At some pharmacies, if they’re a national chain, you can call that patient’s prescription into the local (pharmacy) and the out-of-state one will honor that, but it’s still a hassle to get that done.”

Using a checklist is one way to avoid the problem altogether, Rodriguez said.

“Whenever they’re making a checklist of underwear, bathing suit, etc., they need to make sure medication is on there,” he said.