Keeping a careful check on a loved one’s prescriptions and being aware of each one’s function will assist to ensure their safety.
Maintaining goal-directed medical therapy for a loved one, monitoring symptoms of problems, and spotting potentially dangerous drugs are the three most crucial responsibilities of medication management. In order to effectively carry out your loved one’s care plan, you must learn how to manage their prescriptions.
The article explores the importance of medication management for you and your loved ones.
Importance of Proper Medication Management
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 350,000 people are admitted to hospitals after visiting the emergency department due to adverse medication reactions each year. The use of many drugs, vitamins, and supplements by your loved ones to manage a variety of symptoms and medical problems can raise the risk of medication errors. These straightforward mistakes can occasionally turn deadly. Polypharmacy refers to the frequent use of five or more drugs.
The following are additional elements that raise the likelihood of health issues linked to improper drug management in your loved ones.
Drug Interactions
Some drugs should not be taken with certain meals or beverages or other medications. Alcohol and citrus foods, for instance, might change how certain drugs work. Taking numerous drugs may occasionally increase your chance of falling and suffering an injury from a fall, such as a hip fracture.
Multiple Doctors and Health Conditions
If their treatment isn’t adequately monitored and managed, your loved ones who have various health conditions or see many doctors may be given more prescriptions than they need. Your loved ones who have memory issues or mental illnesses may take more medication than they should. It is vital to check your loved ones’ cognition if they are having trouble taking their prescription, such as forgetting to take it or taking the same drug twice.
Discontinuation of Treatment
Your loved ones could unwittingly disregard their doctor’s recommendations. Others who take many drugs may purposefully omit dosages, not complete prescriptions, or stop taking their meds due to budgetary constraints.
Effective Medication Management Tips
With their doctor, go over your loved one’s prescription regimen. The names, doses, and frequency of any drug your loved one takes should be noted down or obtained in print form from the medical team.
Add nonprescription medications, vitamins, and herbal supplements as well. If your loved one visits numerous doctors, it could be beneficial to keep track of who prescribed each drug and the condition it is intended to treat.
Highlighting all of the over-the-counter medications that a loved one is taking is one of the things that caregivers should do more of. The discussion goes on to provide some advice on which over-the-counter drugs are explicitly to be avoided.
Look at the drug labels and ask questions. Ask the doctor about the dosage, timing, and whether or not meals should be consumed if your parent is starting a new medication. To comprehend dosing instructions and learn about significant interactions and adverse effects, carefully read the drug label.
It’s critical to learn how to read pharmaceutical labels for both prescription and over-the-counter treatments. Carry a magnifying glass with you to read the small print and asking the pharmacist to enlarge the font on any printed documents due to the small print on labels and packaging.
These straightforward modifications might lessen the likelihood of pharmaceutical abuse. Call the physician or pharmacist of your loved one if you have any queries
