Custom Pill Packets for My Aging Mom and Dad?

[GrandmaHoo]

Caution with prepackaged meds

Hi Folks
I am a (recently retired!) nurse and wanted to offer some words of caution. While these prepackaged meds are very helpful to patients who need help taking their meds correctly, here are the cautions to be aware of.

No manner of reminders, pill boxes, pre packages will guarantee a person will actually take the medication. They will still forget, get confused etc. Make sure you have a follow up surveillance plan such as someone checking in the home to determine if the pills are being taken. Verbally corroborating with your family member is usually fine, but not always!

My biggest concern with prepackaged medications is the confusion when medications change especially among different providers, after a hospitalization, or after being discharged from a facility. I have encountered major discrepancies when a person brings in their pill package and I compare it to their medication list. Make sure your loved one brings in his/her actual pill bottles and their actual pill packages to all doctor appointments and use only one pharmacy. At least the one pharmacy can help reconcile what has been dispensed and when.

Suggestions: 1. a case manager or nurse case manager or family member who can attend or communicate with all providers at all visits. 2. A pharmacy you can easily communicate with who will work with you to make changes.

Hope this is helpful. Appreciate your efforts to make this work for your loved one. Karen

 

[REWahoo]

^ Excellent advice. With every convenience comes a caution.

 

[Tailgate]

Am adding to this old thread because this is a good place to start if someone is searching for a service like Pillpack.

Last August, my 90 year old mother (in independent living) went bat sh*t crazy. Doom and gloom, zero energy and thinking about the most awful things that could happen to her. A visit to her PCP only resulted in a referral to a psychiatrist. Earliest available appointment was 6 weeks away.

She had always been diligent about loading her pill organizer with the various 10 pills she took daily for multiple issues. I decided to audit her efforts and discovered that she was double dosing on an anti-seizure med she had been recently prescribed. Obviously, I took over that job. It took about a week for her system to return to normal, but it did and she's doing great. At the time, I had no appetite for counting pills and hoping she would take them correctly and had little trust that all would be well. Enter Pillpack.

There's plenty of info available about Pillpack and similar services. I'll just say it's a game changer for these type situations and I'm thrilled with their service. I even moved my 4 prescriptions to their service. Only consideration for me is that the copays are a little higher, probably because they don't do 90 day supplies, only monthly. Guess that's an insurance issue to check into.

The one thing I would add is that I recommend thinking about where the monthly packages are sent to. The only reason I have her meds delivered to me is that the medical literature with information about each drug effects and side effects come in the box. My mother started believing she had multiple symptoms caused by some of the drugs. She was reading all of the literature and at her age, her mind led her to a little paranoia issue. Literature removed, problem solved.

 

[OldShooter]

Yes. Big changes in the past couple of years. DW is now getting packs from Amazon and is very happy. I think CVS and Walgreen's also offer the service. One thing to ask is the number of pills that they can put in one pack.