According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, over 43 million Americans have given care to children or adults in the last twelve months. Many of these caregivers provide aid one other adult, with 39 million providing care to someone with a disability or illness.
The most common types of care provided include shopping, food preparation, transportation and giving medications.
AARP offered useful tips on how caregivers can made medication management easier. One tip is to spend time each week to organize medicines for the week ahead. Another is to make a spreadsheet or list to keep track of refill due dates and other information that can help with organization.
Caregivers are told to educate themselves on the medications being used by their loved one or patient. Keep medications separate, follow instructions, and use technology are other tips given to caregivers.
What has not but mentioned, but should be, is the use of prepackaged medication.
The benefits prepackaged medication offers to caregivers far exceeds any previous advice. This is because prepackaged medication can offer all these solutions and more, making their job more efficient.
Better Education with Prepackaged Medications
Care givers need knowledge on the medications they are administering to patients. They need to know what to expect if the patient has a negative reaction. They need to know signs and symptoms for a possible drug interaction.
Care givers are given much better medication education with prepackaged medicine than by traditional methods.
Consulting with the doctor directly is one of the best educational benefits. Pharmacists are busy. Patients and care givers know this and are reluctant to ask questions at the pharmacy.
At the point of care, however, care givers feel more comfortable, less rushed and like privacy is important. They are more likely to ask questions imperative to the correct treatment of your patient.
Educational material with prepackaged medications offers information on the origin of the medicine, what it is used to treat, how to administer it, who to call for more information and your contact information and instructions.
Easy Administration of Prepackaged Drugs
Prepackaged medications come in containers that separate the medication and label them, so the care giver can simply choose the medication that matches the date for administration.
For instance, if the packaging labels the pills according to the day of the week, the caregiver simply must pop out the medicine that coincides with the day. If a pill is labeled “Monday”, then the care giver will give that pill to the patient on Monday.
Care givers can easily see if patients have missed any doses or if they have taken too many while not in their care.
Whether it is unit-of-use packaging or bottling, packaging is made to be easy to use by the patient. They come with pre-prepared labeling with serialization. They also have pre-printed information on the packaging, so the patient will make no errors on how much to take and when.
Packaging is important for drug stability. Packaging must be able to protect the drugs from external elements. These elements can include shipping conditions, temperature variances and even the outside packaging that holds the repackaged medicines.
Prepackaged medications come in containers that separate the medication and label them, so the care giver can simply choose the medication that matches the date for administration.
For instance, if the packaging labels the pills according to the day of the week, the caregiver simply must pop out the medicine that coincides with the day. If a pill is labeled “Monday”, then the care giver will give that pill to the patient on Monday.
Care givers can easily see if patients have missed any doses or if they have taken too many while not in their care.
Use of Technology for Prepackaged Medications
The software program that accompanies prepackaged medication sets your office staff up for streamlining success. It makes the entire process of prescribing, filling, and even billing simple and accurate.
The software program is installed by the company’s technician, who is also available around the clock for technical support.
With this software, you simple enter the data on a patient, print a label to adhere to the prepackaged medicine, and deliver to your patient. And with a push of a button, you can send a claim directly to the insurance company. It really is that simple.
Prepackaged medications can be streamlined for quick delivery because there is no compounding, mixing, or sorting that needs to be completed. The medicines are ready before the patients even need them.
You and your staff simply enter the prescription information into the computer. Next you print the label, retrieve the prepackaged medicine from the locked cabinet, adhere the label and deliver package to your patient.
Today’s Caregiver magazine acknowledges the stress managing medication can be for the caregiver. The health and safety of the patient is left in the hands of a family member, or a home care provider. They must make sure medicines are given at the right time and have been stored properly.
They must avoid common medication errors like mixing up the colors, sizes, dose amounts and even storage requirements.
Avoid Medication Errors
You can prescribe and dispense the correct medication to your patients. But what happens when the caregiver who administers their daily doses gets it wrong. Your patient could die because a caregiver is not organized. Or, because they simply could not tell the difference between two pills, didn’t keep track of when the last dose was given, or stored the medicine in the wrong temperature.
Prepackaged medication solves these problems.
Being accurate in your diagnoses and in prescribing the right medicines are two ways you can evaluate yourself. Helping caregivers maintain this accuracy with prepackaged medicine is how you can further aid your patients in reaching health goals.
Caregivers are responsible for following your instructions in caring for your patient. Providing them with services such as dispensing prepackaged medication, caregivers become better educated on secure administration to patients. Therefore, helps you meet your goal of improving patient health.