Grandparents love to spend time with their grandchildren. Many times, however, tiny fingers can end up in places they shouldn’t, which is why putting precious or breakable objects out of reach of curious little hands is important. Equally important (if not more so) is keeping medicines and vitamins up and away and out of sight of young children.

Consider this: more than 70,000 children end up in emergency departments each year after getting their hands on medicines left within reach. That’s 165 kids—or roughly four busloads of kids — per day. Quite often, that medicine belonged to a grandparent.

Where are children getting these medicines? From countertops, bedside tables, purses and pockets, and loose pills that fall on tables or floors. While weekly pill minders are great at help-ing to keep track of multiple medications, they rarely have a child-proof feature, so an inquisitive child can get into the colorful medicines stored inside.

“Grandparents and parents may not be aware of the danger posed by leaving medications where young children can reach or see them,” says Dr. Dan Budnitz, director of the Medication Safety Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “A few simple steps — followed every time — can protect our children.”

So, grandparents, do enjoy your time with your grandchildren, but whether you’re having them over to your house, or visiting theirs, remember to store your medicines in a place they can’t access.

The following tips are from the CDC’s “Up and Away and Out of Sight” initiative:

Keep all medicines and vitamins up and away and out of sight in a high cabinet or shelf that your grandchildren can’t get to. If you think you might forget to take your medicine if they are not in plain sight, leave yourself a reminder on the refrigerator or somewhere that you check daily.
Never leave medicines or vitamins out on a counter or bedside table, even if you have to take the medicine just a few hours later.
Re-lock the safety cap on a medicine bottle. If the bottle has a locking cap that turns, twist it until you hear the click.
Never tell children medicine is candy, even if your grandchild doesn’t like to take his or her medicine.
Keep purses, bags or coats that have medicines or vitamins in them out of reach and sight of young ones.
Program the Poison Help number (1-800-222-1222) into your phone so you have it in case of an emergency.

Visit UpandAway.org for more tips on safe medicine storage.

Ever wonder if your elder’s meds are being taken correctly? If they are living in a residence facility, are their meds being dispensed at the right time and in the right dosage? Well, you’re not coming out of left field if you have. You are smart to check on this periodically. Why?Prescription Drug Checks for Senior

Well, there are so many points where errors can occur. Here are a few:

A new doctor prescribes a medication that doesn’t work well with your elder’s current meds. This could happen if the new doc doesn’t have a complete list of current meds, or if no one asks about how the meds might work (or not work) together.

Your elder uses one pharmacy for maintenance meds and a different pharmacy for short-term meds like antibiotics. If the new pharmacy doesn’t know what maintenance meds are being taken, they might not know to counsel your elder on possible conflicts.

The residence facility where your elder lives got a new doctor order after your elder has been at a rehab facility. The new order might conflict with maintenance meds.

There are new staff members at the residence facility that don’t give your elder the meds at the correct time.

Your elder goes to the hospital without a list of current meds and the hospital pulls up an old med list from a prior visit.

Their prescription drug allergies are not listed on their med sheet.

And on, and on…

So what’s a person to do?

First of all, create and keep up-to-date a list of current medications that your elder takes, the dosage for each and the timing of the dosage. Don’t forget to list any allergies they may have. Make sure your elder has a copy in their purse or wallet; you keep a copy with you.

Insist on a care conference with staff of any facility (residence, hospital, rehab) when your parent first arrives to go over current medications. At the hospital, this can be a mini-conference with the nursing staff when your elder arrives or when they are transferred from one unit to another (i.e. ICU to regular floor).

If new meds are prescribed at a specialist doc visit, share this with your elder’s primary care office. Also share with the nursing director or wellness nurse at your elder’s facility. Double check after a few days to make sure the new meds have been entered into the elder’s chart and/or they are being dosed according to orders.

If your parent fills their own med box (like the 7 day kind), double check while you’re there to make sure their dosages are correct and dispensed at the right time of day.

If you ever have any questions about contraindications for meds, your elder’s pharmacist can answer them. If not the pharmacist, there’s usually a 24-hour help line available from most Rx insurance plans (like Humana).

Don’t go overboard reading and panicking with the “reading material” that is included with most prescriptions – but it is wise to glance through the sections that list the possible side effects and any cautions they discuss.

Make sure both the mail-order pharmacy and the retail pharmacy have the most up-to-date info on your elder’s complete list of meds and any allergies they may have.

If your elder is living at a facility, include a review of their meds whenever you have a care conference or health review with the nursing staff.

Medications are kind of like wallpaper, once we get used to taking them, they just become part of the overall scenario. We don’t really think about questioning the doc about how new meds might interact with current meds. We don’t often think to double check our parent’s pill box to make sure they are dispensing correctly.

If you need to, set a reminder in your phone or on your calendar to check the next time you take your parent to the doctor, the next time you’re over visiting with your elder or when you pick up refills at their pharmacy.

Be vigilant, be aware and be inquisitive. Those are the best tips for making sure your elder’s meds do what they are intended to do, and not what they aren’t.

If you’re interested in a cheat sheet that I’ve developed for listing current meds in an easy-to-use format, sign up for notification when they’re available for download from my website. https://whitewingdesign.wufoo.com/forms/zf4ykzc1t13igs/

Author: Suzanne Blankenship

Prescription Drug Checks for Seniors

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