Custom Pill Packets for My Aging Mom and Dad?

Mo Money

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Has anyone had experience with pharmacies that custom-package medications in small packets, which can be torn open to reveal the meds to be taken? I am told that such pharmacies exist, and the packets sound like a solution to my parents' inability to take their meds properly. My father is on 17 meds (!) and my mother is on 6 or 7...

Does Medicare cover such packaging?

Any input, or experience with such pharmacies, would be appreciated.
 
I've never heard of this kind of service. DW is on 13 meds, and it would be good to have that kind of packet. *subscribed*
 
Nursing homes commonly, maybe always, get meds prepacked that way. Call a couple of them and ask about their suppliers.
 
My Mom had the pharmacist fill a very large weekly pill box .They would deliver it but even with this method my Mom was dropping pills or just leaving them somewhere .You could always make your own with small baggies that you label .
 
Nursing homes commonly, maybe always, get meds prepacked that way. Call a couple of them and ask about their suppliers.


Not the one my mom is at... I had asked about that and they said that it prevents them from changing meds if something changes...


IOW, there are some pills my mom is not supposed to take if blood pressure is low or heart rate is low...
 
What we had for my mom before we moved her was something like this....


https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...automatic+pill+dis,aps,175&crid=3NTZCT4APM3L4





This also gave us info on when she did NOT take pills... IOW, there were certain times in the day she had access to the pills she needed... 4 to 6 hours later the tray moved and her new pills showed... if she did not take the previous ones she could not get them...


Now, if you parents are such that they will open it up anyhow then this will not work, but my mom never did...
 
If someone is very elderly, can’t they be taken off some of their meds if not most?
 
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My wife is using Pillpack and is very satisfied. They are no cheaper than CVS, but are very organized and managed.

I would suggest it especially for those that are a little confused on pill schedules. It used to take my sister and both my parents to manage their meds.
 
I've never heard of this kind of service. DW is on 13 meds, and it would be good to have that kind of packet. *subscribed*

my local pharmacist ( in Australia ) offered to do this for me ( too few or excessive dosages are very dangerous )

also available at modest cost are plastic trays where you can put in the pills for each dose ( mine vary in the morning and night ) so you can pre-load them for your aging parents ) .. the problem here is if the medications change frequently or need special treatment ( such as some anti-biotics that need to be kept cool ., while others need to be kept away from moisture .

please consider carefully in some cases it will be a joy , but in others an accident waiting to happen .

cheers
 
I will ask OP why their parents cannot take pills properly?


I know my mom has dementia so she has a problem, but before that she never did...


IF your parents have memory problems then the pill pack will not solve your problem... my sisters and mom went on a cruise and used a normal pill dispenser instead of the one I linked before... guess what? Mom could not remember if she took pills and did not know what day it was... the girls found out mom had taken the full week of pills in the first two days!!!


I would think your parents would do the same... not remember taking them and opening up another pack... or it could be the other way and they think they had taken them but did not... the packs cannot fix this problem...
 
in my case , changing medications , dizziness ( and sometimes blurred vision ) AND abnormal sleeping patterns .

so yes i can see potential issues for a lady 20 years my senior .

when mum was alive there was a period she was required to ( physically ) halve her Capoten tablet ( not the easiest feat for an able-bodied person .. it was a tiny little thing even when whole )
 
My brother gets this from CVS. He takes about six different medications a day at different times. We're very satisfied with the entire process. Home delivery and very easy to use. Highly recommended!!!
 
I will ask OP why their parents cannot take pills properly?

I can't speak for the OP but in my husband's last couple of months with acute myeloid leukemia his cognitive skills were failing just enough that he'd forget whether he'd taken pills even though he had a list of what to take when. I'd find a little green pill or a little blue pill (no, not THAT little blue pill) on a desk or a table and he wouldn't remember if that was today's or yesterday's. I finally took to buying some little plastic containers and giving him one 3 times a day, each with the necessary pills. He would have been cogent enough to handle the pill container that shuts you out of one group of pills unless you've taken the previous one, but one needed to be refrigerated, which would have complicated things.

I was still finding stray pills here and there after he died.:(
 
You could hire a home health nurse to come once every four weeks to do a home visit and put the pills into the pill organizer. We had this for our dad. He had some other home health services during that time (help with showering, a little light house cleaning).
 
Thanks everyone for your responses.

Texas Proud: My dad has a decent memory but my mom does not; he can make sure she opens her packets, or her 31-day pillbox compartments, whichever I ultimately use. I have to decide quickly, so I will be calling around and investigating the options tomorrow.
 
IF your parents have memory problems then the pill pack will not solve your problem... my sisters and mom went on a cruise and used a normal pill dispenser instead of the one I linked before... guess what? Mom could not remember if she took pills and did not know what day it was... the girls found out mom had taken the full week of pills in the first two days!!!
Been there. We filled one of those "morning-lunch-afternoon-evening" 7 day boxes for Dad.

He proceeded to take the pills to make pretty diagonal patterns! YIKES!

We had to hire someone at independent living to dole them out. We loaded, they administered. Having them load would cost more. I could actually still see the pill pack being really handy and logical for someone hired to administer.

I saw my first add for pillpack.com and thought "there's an idea I wish I had thought of..."
 
Been there. We filled one of those "morning-lunch-afternoon-evening" 7 day boxes for Dad.

He proceeded to take the pills to make pretty diagonal patterns! YIKES!

We had to hire someone at independent living to dole them out. We loaded, they administered. Having them load would cost more. I could actually still see the pill pack being really handy and logical for someone hired to administer.

I saw my first add for pillpack.com and thought "there's an idea I wish I had thought of..."




Yes, this can be an important difference between someone in memory care and someone in assisted living...


My mom's memory care is a flat fee for 100% care... no extra for pills or helping toilet or shower... even feeding if needed...


Assisted living had different levels of service that you paid... a-la-carte...
 
My mom has dementia and is in Assisted Living, the pharmacist we have used in the past at her prior facility provided this service and her new facility has a program that they want everyone to use. You can imagine the benefits to the assisted living facilities in terms of ease of use and reduction in liability. However there is also a big benefit to the family if we have to take mom out of the facility for travel, relocation, etc. We are not as familiar with her daily pill regime and we receive it in nice daily packages to give her. Great service and would pay extra for the benefit if required. If you are not aware there are also machines that are loaded with a months supply of pills and are timed to dispense multiple times a day as the pills prescribed. They are great for stay at home parents with limited caregiving or who are more independent. Affordability is easy to justify for some of it retains their loved ones independence.
 
Yes. A number of our pharmacies provide this service. My mother took advantage of it for several years.
 
I had actually assumed all pharmacies offered this these days. I know my sisters work at small-town pharmacies and they both offer this service (2500 people and less towns). They do it for the local nursing homes and for individuals if requested. The big pharmacies have the super machines which the techs just spend all day re-loading the drugs into while the machine automatically counts and spits out packages.

As mentioned the only big issue is that once dispensed your insurance is billed, so if you have to switch it, then you have an issue because they are already packaged together, so most people only package those things which are constant, else you end up paying out of pocket for that month and you can't use the pill packets as is anyway so it gets complicated.


The packages should include contents, time to take, and often include things like "take with morning meal", so people instantly know if it has to be taken with food or not.

The other option is the apps which have gotten pretty good at scanning and identifying meds. The scanning part helps when you have a pill roll on the floor and are like umm.. I had to use one of those while doing hospice for my dad. We updated every time the nurse came as the meds were constantly switching. There is no way I could have managed without the app as it was a different combo of pills every 2 hours and eventually, every hour and some had to be refrigerated and some I locked up as you got syringes of morphine. You have some pills they just won't take at some point so you needed to know which were mandatory and which were optional. I appreciated nurses way more after that experience.
 
Update from OP: I enrolled my parents in Pill Pack's service and it is working well. It takes about a month (one cycle of monthly deliveries) to get all the meds included. But Pill Pack gives great service and I can run the whole thing from my computer, 70 miles from my parents' house. My parents think it is working well, too.

I also bought my Mom two large digital clocks that have the day and time of day in bold letters, with simple graphics. My mother has memory issues, so this helps guide her on what day it is, as well as what time of day. My dad loves them too, since it minimizes the times my mom asks him whether it's Monday or not!
 
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