Medication reminders by a skilled home health aide can help to prevent dangerous medication mishaps that are becoming increasingly common among the elderly.
Many medication schedules are challenging to remember. The problem is compounded by many elderly patients taking multiple medications at once, sometimes to treat the same ailment. This is known as polypharmacy, and errors related to taking all these drugs can run rampant.
If your loved one is required to take one or more medications, you may find the entire schedule confusing.
Take this in the morning and that at night.
Who can remember it all?
With so much riding on your loved one taking the right drugs at the proper times, you owe it to yourself to hire a professional home caregiver who can keep your loved one’s health on track.
At Infinite Love Home Care, we offer home care aides who – as one of their duties – provide medication reminders to their patients.
Here are ten ways medication reminders could help your loved one while receiving the very best care in the comfort of home.
10 Ways Medication Reminders Can Prevent Accidents
1. Coordinate with Physician
Our home care specialists don’t just wing it when it comes to medication. A medication schedule needs to be accurate. That is why our aides check with your loved one’s doctor and pharmacy to ensure all medications are being taken appropriately.
Knowing that the labels on the medications match what’s inside, and the frequency and dosages are controlled by a doctor helps make the home care aide’s job much easier.
2. Monitor Medication Schedules
Once the schedule is identified, the home care aide can create a chart that lists when each medication is required to be taken.
By using this chart, there will be fewer chances for a mix-up, helping to keep your loved one’s health in check.
3. Provide Medicine Reminders
Your loved one won’t have to think about when to take various medications. Our home care aides will provide the necessary reminders to keep the medications working as they should.
The reminders could come in the form of alarms or alerts and will ensure each medication is taken as directed.
4. Help with Refill Ordering
All medications eventually run out.
To ensure there are no breaks in treatment, our home care aides are trained to check for refills before they’re absolutely needed.
This allows for a refill schedule that will keep the medications filled and being used as required for the ailments being treated.
5. Pick-up Refills
Aging seniors don’t always have transportation to and from the pharmacy. Instead of putting them at risk by making them get behind the wheel, our home care experts can drive them wherever they need to go in town.
We can even accompany them to the pharmacy to make sure the refill is accurate and that the transaction is successful.
6. Proper Medication Storage
Some medicines need to be refrigerated while others can be stored at room temperature. Your loved one doesn’t need to remember how to store the medications.
Our home care experts will take care of all medication storage. We can even recommend a pillbox so that the medication schedule is as easy as being mindful of the days of the week.
7. With Food or Without
Some medications need to be taken with food in the morning while others should be taken on an empty stomach. Our home care aides can prepare meals and ensure healthy eating while we give your loved one the proper medicines at the same time.
Whether the medicines need to be taken with food or without, we’ll keep your loved one on track to minimize any stomach discomfort or other medication side effects.
8. Minimize Side Effects
As we are providing medication reminders, if we notice that your loved one has a headache, stomachache, or other side effects, we can do what’s necessary to ease his or her discomfort until the effects pass.
With the assistance of our home care aides, your loved one can get the benefit of the medicine without too much of the downside.
9. Medication Journal
If medications change or there is a side effect, we can keep a medication journal that can be shared with the doctor and family.
Your loved one will never have to worry about when they took medication or why, or what happened. Everything will be documented as part of the home care service we provide.
10. Keep the Family Updated
And in doing so, we keep the family informed every step of the way. There will never be a question as to your loved one’s state of mind, mentally, physically, or emotionally, and we’ll ensure all medications are working as they should for short-term or long-term care you can always trust.
Wondering if Home Care Medication Reminders are Right for You?
Is your loved one getting forgetful? Are dementia and Alzheimer’s disease making it difficult for your loved one to know when to take the proper medications? Whatever your situation, Infinite Love Home Care in Orange County wants to offer you a free evaluation.
We can come into the home to provide home care services, which include medication reminders, but also light housekeeping, transportation to doctor appointments, companionship, and a whole lot more.
Bring your loved one to see us and see if our home care aides are right for you. In addition to taking the proper medications, we can help your loved one feel happy, safe, and comfortable in their secure home environment. Call now to learn more.