Evaluation of pharmacists' compliance with the Poison Prevention Packaging Act

Sixty pharmacies in Memphis, Tennessee were given two prescriptions at seven-day intervals to determine whether the medicine would be dispensed in child-resistant containers (CRCs) as required by federal law. One prescription included the statement "dispense in child-resistant container." Without such a statement, 77 per cent of the pharmacies dispensed the drug in a CRC; the prescription with the reminder elicited a compliance rate of 75 per cent. Factors such as cost of the prescription and time required to fill the prescription had no discernible effect on local pharmacy practice to dispense the prescription in a CRC.