SUBSTITUTE ORDINANCE
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section 6(a); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection ofthe public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago Tribune conducted an investigation between 2015 and 2017 and found that 52% of 255 pharmacies tested in the Chicago region failed to warn patients about prescriptions for potential drug interactions that could be harmful or fatal; and
WHEREAS, the field of pharmacy is growing as ten percent (10%) of people take five (5) or more types of drugs, which is twice the percentage reported in 1994; and
WHEREAS, pharmacists are being asked to handle about thirty (30) prescriptions per hour, giving them two minutes to fill a prescription, counsel the patient, and check for potential drug interactions; and
WHEREAS, when filling prescriptions, a pharmacist has the primary duty to detect potential drug interactions, warn patients, and prevent harm and all other duties should be secondary to the pledge they made to do no harm; and
WHEREAS, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, dangerous drug combinations are a major public health problem, injuring over 1.3 million people each year, and causing the death of nearly 100,000 people - making such reactions one of the six leading causes of death in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices estimated thirty (30) to fifty (50) million prescriptions are filled incorrectly each year, totaling two percent (2%) of the four (4) billion prescriptions filled annually; and
WHEREAS, in 2013, the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices conducted a survey of 673 pharmacists revealing that 83% believed distractions due to performance metrics or measured ...
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