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To establish the cost savings associated with using a medication management system, one must determine what their costs would otherwise be and deduct the cost of the device / service. Medication management services can save families $3,000 / year over using human care providers. Some services are integrated with personal emergency response / electronic home monitoring services. Devices are sturdy, have battery backups for power failures, and are compact enough to move easily between locations.
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Devices store between 10 – 30 days’ worth of medicine and manage up to 10 different medications concurrently. There are also services that perform those activities on a family’s behalf. The reports shows medication adherence over time for viewing by caregivers and healthcare professionals.ĭispensing devices are programmed and refilled by family members or caregivers. These systems also produce online reports. This is of particular importance for persons with life threatening conditions that are controlled with medication. Alerts can be provided to appropriate parties by email or text message in the event a dosage is missed. Caregivers and family members can be notified of the success or failure. In either case, a status report is relayed to a central location over a phone line, cellular network, or wireless Internet. They press a simple button on a machine and it dispenses the appropriate combination of medicines and any special instructions, such as “take with food.” If the individual fails to take their medication, some devices will lock away the medication after a set period of time to avoid the potential of double dosing. To start, persons are notified either by alarm, a call, or an alert pushed to a special watch that lets the individual know it is time to take their medicine. Medication management services perform multiple tasks to help seniors adhere to their prescription regimens. Given that over 40% of seniors take at least five different medications regularly, it should be no surprise that adherence challenges exist.
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And that rate is even higher among seniors. Failure to adhere to prescription instructions accounts for 10% of hospital admissions. Proper adherence further declines as the number of scripts, number of doctors, and length of prescription increase. It is further complicated by aging issues, such as mobility and memory challenges, poor eyesight, and simply an inability to understand instructions. Adherence is affected by many factors, such as culture, personal beliefs, and medication side effects. Before discussing the features of these systems, the cost savings, and peace of mind they can create, it is helpful to understand the challenges of medication adherence.