RoundsHome health
Keeping medicines straight at home: a caregiver’s system
A simple system for managing many medicines at home: one up-to-date list, a pill organizer, a schedule, safe storage, and the questions to ask at every visit.
Listen to this note
Many people being cared for at home take a long list of medicines, and the list often changes after a hospital stay or a doctor’s visit. Mix-ups are common and can be dangerous. A few simple habits make a big difference. This note lays out a system families can set up in an afternoon.
One list, kept current
Keep one written list of every medicine: prescriptions, over-the-counter pills, vitamins, supplements, inhalers, creams and eye drops.1 For each, write the name, the dose, when it’s taken, and what it’s for. Bring the list to every appointment and every hospital visit.
Comparing lists at every change of care, a step clinicians call medication reconciliation, is one of the main ways to prevent errors.2 When a medicine is started, stopped or changed, update the list that day.
A pill organizer and a schedule
A weekly pill organizer with morning, noon, evening and bedtime boxes makes doses easy to check: if the box is still full, the dose was missed. Fill it once a week at the same time. A simple chart on the fridge, ticked off as doses are given, helps when more than one person gives medicines.
Use one pharmacy
Filling everything at one pharmacy lets the pharmacist check for interactions across all the medicines.1 Ask the pharmacist to review the full list once a year, or whenever something new is added.
Questions to ask
What is this for? How and when should it be taken: with food, without? What side effects should we watch for? Does it replace anything on the list? When should we call?1
Store and dispose of medicines safely
Keep medicines in their labeled bottles, away from heat and moisture, and out of reach of children and visitors. Ask the pharmacist how to get rid of medicines that have been stopped, especially pain medicines; many pharmacies take them back.
Where home health helps
A home health nurse reviews every medicine in the home at the start of care, including the ones from before the hospital, and teaches the family how to give them. If something on the list doesn’t make sense, that visit is the time to ask.
Questions families ask
Do vitamins belong on the list?
Yes. Include over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements, because they can interact with prescriptions.1
What do we do with old medicines?
Ask the pharmacist. Many pharmacies take back medicines that are no longer needed.
Who checks the whole list?
Your pharmacist can, and a home health nurse reviews every medicine at the start of care.2
Sources
Sources 2 references
- MedlinePlus, “Taking multiple medicines safely,” National Library of Medicine, reviewed July 23, 2024. medlineplus.gov (opens in a new tab)
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, PSNet, “Medication Reconciliation,” patient safety primer, last reviewed 2024. psnet.ahrq.gov (opens in a new tab)
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