Can You Read These RXs?

Rx 1

This doctor’s handwriting mystified Marie Baronne, RPh, of ShopRite Pharmacy in Jackson, New Jersey. One look at it, and she had to call the prescriber’s office for clarification.

Can you read the prescription?

Rx 2

This prescription was a mystery to the staff at CarePlus Pharmacy in Columbia, South Carolina. After 4 pharmacists and technician Amanda Lowe, CPhT, couldn’t figure it out, a nurse at the prescriber’s office finally helped.

Can you read the prescription?

Rx 3

This lengthy prescription, submitted by Butch Loyd, RPh, of Griffin Drug Co in Cleveland, Georgia, includes a whopping 6 illegible medication names. Needless to say, Butch was confounded, so he called the physician for a translation.

How many of them can you read?

Rx 4

A pharmacy technician at Walgreens in Kingston, New York, had the pleasure of decoding this drug name and illegible instructions with the help of someone in the prescriber’s office.

Can you read it?

ANSWERS

Rx 1: Singulair 5 mg, #90, 3 refills—take 1 tablet daily

Rx 2: Lasix 40 mg, # 60, 1 pill alternating 1 and ½ pill

Rx 3: 1) Zocor 40 mg #90—take once a day at bedtime; 2) Lortab 5—take once a day; 3) Metformin 500 mg—take 2, twice a day; 4) Zoloft 50 mg #30—take once a day; 5) Glipizide XL 10 mg #180—take twice a day; 6) Humulin 70/30 #3—50 units in the morning and 50 units in the evening

Rx 4: Zithromax 250 (Z-PAK)—take 2 tablets by mouth day 1, then take 1 tablet by mouth daily for 4 more days

Read the answers

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Send in your eye-straining, baffling prescriptions—now via e-mail and fax as well as regular mail! Submissions must include a clean photocopy or scanned image of the Rx; your institution’s name and location; your name and title; the correct name of the drug(s), strength, and dosing requirements; and your phone number. You can e-mail scanned Rxs to kmckay@pharmacytimes .com; fax them to 609-257-0701; or mail them to Can You Read These Rxs?, Pharmacy Times, 666 Plainsboro Road, Suite 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536