ACP has been made aware of pharmacy professionals sharing redacted and partial images of prescriptions on social media and asking the online pharmacy community for their interpretation of the information written on the prescriptions.
Prescription clarification should not be sought on social media—the prescriber is always best equipped to clarify any questions about what is written on the prescription.
There are two important issues that should be considered when sharing information online:
- patient confidentiality, and
- conflicting interpretations of what is written on the prescription.
Sharing any identifying patient or prescriber information on social media is a privacy breach and you may be required to report the breach to the affected individual, the Minister of Health, and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Even when prescription images have had the patient’s and prescriber’s names redacted or cropped out, a prescriber’s handwriting being shared on social media is sometimes enough to breach their privacy.
When it comes to interpreting what is written on the prescription, there are many inherent risks in asking an online community for advice. Depending on the quality of the image of the prescription, pharmacy professionals may have many different interpretations of the drug that is being prescribed, the dose, or any other instructions written on the prescription. There may also be a confirmation bias when a second professional provides their advice after already viewing the previous comments and opinion of another professional. Also, when asking an online community for advice, there is no guarantee that the individual providing the advice is a regulated pharmacy professional. Even a regulated pharmacy professional would not have access to requisite information and the specific patient context to provide an accurate interpretation of the prescription.
As described in the Standards of Practice for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, pharmacy professionals are required to determine if a prescription is appropriate and complete. When in doubt, pharmacy professionals must never “guess” or “assume” the interpretation of a prescriber’s recommendation.