As a registered nurse who helps patients learn to manage complex health conditions in the community setting, I’ve seen many things go wrong with medications. From having patients discharged from the hospital with a medication list in a language they don’t understand, to navigating delayed or missed medications due to insurance authorizations or mail-order pharmacies, the frustrations that come with taking monthly medications are rarely in short supply.
When I meet with a patient who is starting new medication, I try to help him or her identify ways to fit their daily doses into a routine that requires minimal extra effort during the day. For example, if you take medication that needs to be taken with food, take it at your most common meal time during the day rather than trying to make yourself into the breakfast person you might not be just for the medication.
[See: 12 Questions to Ask Before Discharge.]
Some parts of your medication management may be as simple as food and timing issues, but others are more complex. If you see a specialist or two in addition to your primary care provider, you might find yourself with prescriptions from each clinician and question how to make sure they all know what you’re taking. If those prescriptions were all written on different dates, then you may have to pick up each medication at a different time of the month based on the time window of when your insurance will fill them. And when you have a busy day or week, you might easily forget to pick up your medication on time or not be able to get to the pharmacy before they close.
Since managing your health care can be enough of a challenge without having to plan your food schedule around medications and organizing your month by your pharmacy trips, here are three steps to simplify your medication routine:
[See: How to Help Aging Parents Manage Medications.]
1. Communicate clearly about your medications with your primary care provider and specialists. Your records from specialist visits should be sent back to your PCP after each visit, but each provider might not always have your most updated medication list. Consider using a printable medication planner (or the app version, which can also send you daily dose reminders) of something like MyMedSchedule. You can input your medications by name, dose and time of day you take them. It will even print with recommended advice on dosing suggestions and side effects to watch for. Take a copy to each medical visit, and you’ll ensure that you — and your provider(s) — are partnering effectively for the medications you need.
2. Request auto-refill. The last thing you want to find when you’re on your last day or two of an important medication is that you have no refills left at the pharmacy. Ask that your local pharmacy put your monthly medications on auto-refill, and they’ll send a refill request to your provider when you’ve filled your last refill — giving you a month for the refill to get back to the pharmacy before you need more.
3. Ask your pharmacy to sync your pick-up dates. To avoid multiple trips per month, ask your pharmacist to help you merge your pick-up dates. They can do this by filling a partial month of medication so it’ll come due sooner — at the same time as your other prescriptions. And a word about copays: Your insurance may require the standard copay whether you picked up a full or a partial month supply. The pharmacy often has an override code they can use to avoid this, or they may be able to call your insurance company to request an override for the copay in order to sync your medications.
[See: 5 Common Preventable Medical Errors.]
Try one or more of these tips today to make your medications work for you and free up time to pursue other health and wellness goals.
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3 Ways to Simplify Your Monthly Medications originally appeared on usnews.com
