National Check Your Meds Day

Tomorrow, October 21st is National Check Your Meds Day.

This is a time to bring your prescription medications and other pills to your pharmacist or physician for a comprehensive review. Many patients have prescriptions from multiple providers and each drug has a different dose and needs to be taken at different times. It can be difficult to keep it all organized. Having a provider review your prescription and non-prescription drugs can be helpful and even important to your safety. These reviews are often called “brown-bag reviews” because most individuals will toss all their medications and supplements into a brown bag and take it with them to their doctor’s office or pharmacy.

Medication reviews can greatly improve patient safety by catching errors made in the prescribing and/or dispensing of the medications. The review also gives providers an opportunity to determine whether the patient still needs each medication or if the dosage is correct. Another good thing about medication reviews is that they can also catch miscommunication between providers and eliminate duplicate prescriptions. National Check Your Meds Day is particularly important for patients with multiple health conditions taking multiple drugs from several providers.

The pharmacist or physician will review:

-That your prescription drugs are correct

-That your dosage is correct

-That you are taking the drug correctly

-That the medication has not expired

-Check your supplements, vitamins, and other over-the-counters

-Answer any questions

Many providers offer electronic record systems, such as “My Chart”, that allow you to log in through the internet and update your over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and other supplements. These electronic systems also let you view your prescriptions, send refill requests, and email questions to your provider. When you have multiple health conditions with multiple doctors, these electronic systems are a good way to update your providers when your health status changes or when prescriptions change.

In honor of National Check Your Meds Day, Private Home Care encourages you to bring your medications to your pharmacy or doctors office for a review. This review can not only be helpful, but important to your health.