Medications taken incorrectly can reduce their effectiveness or, worse, can be dangerous and even deadly.
More than half of seniors take their medications incorrectly, at least from time to time if not every day, according to estimates we’ve heard.
That’s understandable, since half are taking at least two prescription drugs in addition to a variety of over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and supplements.
It’s not uncommon for some seniors to be taking more than 20 medications in a day.
Anyone — at any age — taking that many medications is likely to slip up and do so incorrectly from time to time.
There are a number of medication organizers we’ve seen that will help address the problem, including some connected digital organizers, and more are on the way. There are still human elements involved in loading the organizers, not to mention the time and effort needed to refill prescriptions and over-the-counter medications.
Fortunately, there is a solution that significantly simplifies the entire process for seniors and their family caregivers.
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Medication Solution from Simple Meds
We encountered several medication management solutions at Aging in America, but none that intrigued us as much as Simple MedsSM.
First, Simple Meds is a pharmacy and step into the seniors medication process from the time the healthcare provider writes a prescription or recommends an over-the-counter medication through delivering to the senior’s home.
But it is much more than just “delivery” that they do.
While even the best of the medication organizers we found require someone, typically the senior or family caregiver, to load medications — leaving opportunities for errors right up front — Simple Meds effectively does that before shipping medications.
They prepare packets with the medications needed for each dosage time, which really does make the process “simple” for seniors, family caregivers, and anyone for that matter.
We were particularly impressed with the emphasis on service we heard from everyone with whom we spoke there. They pride themselves on doing much more than filling prescriptions.
Rather than explain how Simple Meds works ourselves, we asked them for an interview we could share on the Senior Care Corner® Podcast. We had a great conversation with Kyle Decker, their Vice President of Pharmacy, and are pleased to share it with you.
In addition to everything they do, you might be interested to hear what Kyle has to say about the cost of having Simple Meds fill your senior’s prescriptions.
We realize Simple Meds is not the only provider offering a solution like this, but they were at Aging in America reaching out to the senior and caregiver community, which counts for something to us.
Links Mentioned in This Episode
- Or call for more information at 615-645-6337 (MEDS)
We hope you enjoy this episode and find our conversation with Kyle to be as informative as we did.
You can also find us in the iOS (iPhone/iPad) Podcast app, Google Play, and on Spotify. Just search for the Senior Care Corner Podcast and you can subscribe to be notified of future episodes and listen to prior episodes (this is #72). Of course, you can always come back here to listen and catch the show notes as well.
We are planning future podcast episodes and look forward to having you join us regularly at Senior Care Corner!
Medication process for senior is very important and taking medicine properly on time according to doctors suggestion is beneficial for the older one. so as a care giver in Downsvale nursing home it is very important for me to take proper care of medicine and their diet.
This is a great solution for the elders. Thank you for sharing.