Ever wonder what all the parts of your prescription label ...

1 YOUR prescription label Ever wonder what all the parts of your prescription label mean? You re not alone! Let PANS take you on a guided tour of a typical prescription label in Nova Scotia! Our pharmacy regulatory body, the Nova Scotia College of Pharmacists (NSCP) requires by law that certain information appears on your prescription label . This includes the minimum amount of information for the safe and effective use of the drug. prescription labels vary from pharmacy to pharmacy. This is just a sample. Your label may contain other information and the information contained may appear in a different order. If in doubt, ask your community pharmacist or pharmacy technician to explain it to you! Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills.

2 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Pharmacy Name, address and telephone number Pharmacy Contact Information Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN prescription Number (Rx being an abbreviation for prescription ). This number identifies YOUR prescription .

3 Numbers are assigned in the order they are filled at the pharmacy. When calling in for a refill, providing this number can make for easy identification by pharmacy staff. prescription Number Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Date Filled: This refers to the date your prescription was filled (or refilled). Date Filled Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Patient Name: This one should be obvious.

4 If you get home and the name on the label isn t yours, call your pharmacy at once. Patient Name Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Prescriber Name: You should recognize the name of the prescriber as your healthcare provider who is ordering this medication. Remember that with expanded prescribing legislation a prescriber may be a doctor, dentist, nurse practitioner, optometrist, pharmacist or veterinarian (for your pets).

5 RPH or PhC usually indicates pharmacist. Prescriber Name Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Directions for Use: This will be the directions your prescriber has provided for this medication. Some medications (example: Warfarin) may come with the general instruction Take as directed . This usually means the prescriber has given detailed directions already or, as in the case of Warfarin will be advising you later how to take based on blood work.

6 Don t leave the pharmacy if the directions on the bottle are not what you were expecting. Directions for Use Auxiliary Labels: These are the small labels on your prescription container with additional information. These are usually points that your pharmacist wants to be certain you remember: like Take with Food, Take until Finished TAKE WITH FOOD Avoid prolonged or excessive exposure to direct and/or artificial sunlight while taking this medication Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Amount of Medication in your container.

7 Very large quantities may be split in 2 or 3 containers. Check with your pharmacy if the quantity indicates the amount in one or all of the containers. Different software systems will label this differently. There are a variety of abbreviations to indicate the contents: TAB (tablet), CAP (capsule), DOS (dose, for things such as inhalers), GM (grams for topicals like creams & ointments), ML (millilitres for liquids). Amount of Medication Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Manufacturer s Identification: This usually appears as a three letter abbreviation.

8 Sometimes it will appear next to the chemical name of the drug and sometimes in parentheses. If your prescription is for a compound which your pharmacist must prepare, the initials CMP, COM or CPD will indicate 'compound . Manufacturer s Identification y Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Drug Name: The manufacturer of a drug has a patent on it s name for the drug (example: Coversyl, Apo-Hydro).

9 In this case, the manufacturer s name appears on the first line and below it is the chemical (sometimes called generic) name. The chemical name of a drug cannot be patented. For example Hydrochlorothiazide is the chemical name of a diuretic which is made by several companies including Apotex. They call their version Apo-Hydro. The drug name often causes confusion. The name may differ from the name your prescriber wrote or referred to. This is due to the availability of different brands of the same chemical. The province of Nova Scotia has a committee that determines what products with the same chemical ingredient may be interchangeable. For medications with more than one chemical ingredient or very long chemical names, shortened forms of the names may be used due to space limitations.

10 Drug Name Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Drug Strength: This refers to the strength of one unit of medication. Be careful in a case like this example: one whole tablet is 4mg. They may be split in two for you. The directions are for tablet daily (=2mg) Drug Strength Rx 8212345 Doe, John , Joe KM 13 Feb 2012 30 TAB Coversyl 4mg Perindopril Erbumine 4mg DIN 02123282 SEV Refills: 3 TAKE TABLET ONCE DAILY All Refills Expire: 12-Feb-2013 KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN Refill Information: Usually a number of times this prescription can be refilled for the same quantity (3x30 TAB = 90 TAB).