(lively music)
Welcome to Hadley Presents.
I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back,
relax, and enjoy a conversation with the experts.
In this episode, we discuss safely managing medication
with options from En-Vision America.
And joining us are Monica Buboltz,
rehabilitation teacher for blind and visually impaired
and director of marketing for En-Vision America, Jenna Reed.
Welcome to the show, both of you.
Morning everyone.
It is so good to have you both,
and we're talking about a subject
that is actually a favorite among our audience,
partly because it's an incredibly important topic.
That is, how do we manage medication safely and effectively,
and most importantly, accessibly.
So, you know, just being able to do that independently
in a way that works for you.
It's something that people often ask about,
and so just being able to present those options to people,
it's going to be a great time
and very informative with both of you.
So again, so happy to have you.
Before we get started, why don't we just take a minute
to let you both introduce yourselves
and talk a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Monica let's start with you.
Yes, good morning everyone.
My name is Monica Buboltz and I live in Minnesota,
and right now it's a beautiful wintertime here.
I have worked in the medical field
for over forty some years, retired from there,
but I continued my own business,
which is rehabilitation teacher
for people with vision and blindness.
And I'm very passionate about it
because I've lived with blindness my whole life.
I do have some remaining vision,
but I do relate to the folks that I work with very well
because I get it and it's a struggle every day,
but you know, there's always something worse out there.
So, you know, there's nothing in life you can't do,
as my braille teacher said, except maybe drive a car.
And I was able to do that for a short time.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it,
and what we're talking about today
is a very important subject to me.
So, thank you for having me.
Fantastic, Monica, thank you.
And Jenna, you are in a slightly warmer climate
than Monica, I think.
Tell us a bit about who you are
and what you do with En-Vision America.
Hi Ricky, thank you so much
for having me and Monica on today.
So, I am with En-Vision America.
I'm a director of marketing.
We are in Palmetto, Florida,
so the West Coast or the Gulf Coast of Florida.
So, let's jump into,
I guess letting people know
what is available for medication management.
'Cause I think it's difficult when you are not able
to check out what's on the printed label,
and maybe you've never been able to do that,
or maybe you have vision loss.
And so, you used to be able to just pick up the bottle
and see what's on it, but now you can't.
And I think that there really isn't
a one size fits all approach
because some people don't like technology,
some people don't know braille.
Some people, you know, still can see things in large print.
So, I guess I'm wondering
what are the options that are available
from En-Vision America, Jenna?
Sure, we have a lot of options available.
You know, We want to cover the gamut.
Basically, at our core,
we want to make the information on medication labels,
visual and in the large print if needed or audible.
We also work in dual language labels.
And then for people who are taking
the controlled substance safety labels,
we have an offering for that as well.
So, our most popular offering
or our flagship which a lot of people know about
is our talking prescription labels.
Those are ScripTalk.
They're very easy to use.
They're free at thousands of pharmacies throughout the US.
Real quick, basically the pharmacist
puts a small circular tag,
usually on the bottom of your prescription bottle.
And then you can either use a little device,
I liken it to an old school portable CD player,
and you set it down and you just push a simple button,
it reads it out loud.
Or you can use your cell phone
to go ahead and have that read out loud audibly.
And again, there's no charge for this.
If you need the device, we ship it free.
You keep it as long as you need it.
We just ask you return it to us
whenever you're done with it.
Another option that we offer
for people who do have some usable vision
is large print labels.
Those are in a booklet style,
so they're securely attached to that prescription bottle.
And has all the, just like ScripTalk,
it has your doctor's name, your dosage, your instructions,
your warnings, your refill, and all that good stuff.
And then for those individuals
who maybe English isn't their first language,
we offer dual language labels,
which again is a booklet style that's attached.
It has both English
and then one of twenty-five different languages
we can translate into.
And then of course we do braille.
It is a contracted braille,
so it's more of a cheat sheet
as to what's in that medication.
And a lot of people will get ScripTalk
in conjunction with that because they want to hear
all that information out loud then,
which the braille is only again, a cheat sheet.
And then for those who are on the stronger medications,
we have the controlled substance safety labels,
which again follows our format.
It's a booklet style that's attached to that bottle.
And then the cool thing about that one
is it has a QR code on it that you can scan.
It just drives home some of those risks
associated with that medication,
like taking it at nighttime before bed, taking it with food,
you know, those kinds of things.
Just to help you be a little bit safer
because some of those, there's a lot of risks,
more of your opioids and things like that
that would be associated with that.
So, I think that covers the highlights.
Absolutely.
And it sounds like there are options really for everyone,
whether you're into technology,
whether you want to have it read out to you.
I love the fact that if you're getting braille,
you can also kind of supplement that with,
"I want to just have a quick read
of what this medication is,
and I can do that in braille,
but if I want that extra information,
it's available in another way."
So, Monica, you are low vision yourself,
and you also work with people who are blind
or have low vision.
I'm wondering, what did you do before ScripTalk
was available and was there ever a time
where either you or maybe somebody that you know,
that you work with had a situation
where having that information on the label was essential,
but you didn't have access to it,
so you're kind of in an unsafe situation?
Well, the population that I mostly work with
are seniors.
Seniors do not always have smartphones.
Seniors are not always willing to make changes
in their lifestyle.
But for me to introduce them to ScripTalk
because I was at a convention
and that was where I got hands-on
to various different type of label readers.
And I chose En-Vision America
because to me it was the simplest
and probably the most cost-effective way
because the others were something
that was actually physically attached to a bottle
that would probably cost a pharmacy more,
and then they would hesitate to move forward with it.
Because when I saw this, I thought, yes, this is awesome.
This will work for people.
And my seniors don't need a smartphone
if they don't have one, they don't need that.
It's just, it's so easy.
But the biggest drawing point for me,
for my consumers was it was free.
I love to introduce people to resources that are free.
And ScripTalk is a free service,
and I think that is the most important thing.
And there are clients that I've had
that have had their own systems, and I clearly,
when they show me, it's like, "Oh, this is dangerous."
This is very dangerous depending upon,
they depend upon the pill shape and color of the pill.
Medication changes rapidly,
and you cannot depend upon those kind of resources
to get by in life,
that this is your true medication for your heart
or whatever it may be.
That's so a good point, Monica.
I know when I go to the doctor,
a lot of times I'm on one generic and they switch me.
My pharmacist switches me to another generic,
and it's a different looking pill.
It feels different in my hands so it's kind of scary.
No, you cannot depend upon that.
And I got to say I'm a senior myself.
You're kind of stuck in your ways, and this is how it is.
No, it is not how it is.
Using a device like this,
reading the whole thing on your bottle.
And then I have the person that will say to me,
"Oh, but my husband helps me.
Oh, my daughter comes over weekly and fills my thing."
If your husband has to go to the nursing home,
you are still in your own home
and your daughter is on a cruise, who is going to help you?
Your neighbor maybe can't see either
or hear or whatever it may be.
You have to have plan B set in place.
Plan B is this.
It's a label reader that's easy to use.
Turn it on, put the bottle on top,
it's going to tell you everything on that whole bottle.
It can't get simpler than that.
Or use your smartphone if you have one,
but it is just so easy and it's free.
That's the two selling points for me.
And do people listen to that?
When you talk about this, I guess for both of you,
I know that some people are really resistant to change.
Like you said earlier, Monica, people get set in their ways
and they're thinking, "Well, if I just squint really hard,
I can still see what's on the bottle.
Or if I just get used to the shape of the pill,
I will be just fine or what have you."
So are there things that you can say
to kind of talk them through that resistance
for whatever reason they don't want to get this,
even if it's free.
Are there things that you can say to them
that tend to work really well in convincing them,
"You know, maybe this isn't going to be so bad?"
I have a lot of tactics, but mostly
I just show them.
I just show them it and they can see for themselves.
They can be hands on, they can feel it, they can hear it.
The volume is very good.
So, for hearing impaired,
which a lot of times goes along with vision impairment,
and I just show them.
"Hey, now isn't this simple?"
Because if Johnny is gone for the night, he's working,
and you got this prescription delivered to you
and you are sick.
You're not feeling well,
you cannot remember how many you were supposed to take now.
Do you want to just take a handful?
I don't think so.
You want to take as directed,
so put it on your little thing here
and it'll tell you exactly how many to take right now.
And you don't have to depend on anyone.
And it's available.
You don't have to use it every day, but it's there.
It's available.
So, what about the logistics of all of this?
What do people need to do to get started?
And Jenna, I guess I'll direct that one to you.
People, you know, they may have their pharmacy
that they currently go to,
and that pharmacy may not know a single thing
about En-Vision America or ScripTalk or any of it.
So, what do people do to get the ball rolling?
The easiest thing folks can do once
they hear about this,
and they decide that they want accessible labels
is just to directly give us a call at En-Vision America.
Our phone number is 1-800-890-1180.
We have a wonderful patient care advocate team
that works the phones, business hours all week long.
We do the work behind the scenes.
We find out what your pharmacy is,
and we can see if it's available at that pharmacy.
If it is not, we will definitely talk to that pharmacy
and we will educate them and we will do our best
to bring them on board.
We can also recommend a pharmacy that's near you.
If for some reason your pharmacy doesn't offer it,
there's usually another pharmacy
in your community that does.
For example, we're in all Walmarts
across the retail counter.
All you have to do is go in and ask for it.
Now, if they don't know, remember, Walmart is a big company
and not every retail counter has it
until somebody's asked for it,
so they don't realize that they can offer it to you.
That's again, call us.
We know the corporate side,
we talk behind the scenes to them,
and we'll help get you set up.
You know, most of the big mail orders do it.
I know Express Scripts does, Optum Rx, Kaiser Permanente.
A lot of the grocery stores, Hy-Vee, Meijer,
Publix, if you're in the south and Florida,
you know Rite Aid, Sam's Club, CVS has a spoken RX version,
which I know you have talked about as well.
Wegmans.
It's also in all the veteran affairs
throughout the country as well.
So that one is available too.
So basically, what happens
is we get you set up at your pharmacy
and then they'll get your information,
and they'll flag you as a ScripTalk user.
And then they send us a simple form if you want the device.
We don't have access to any of your prescriptions
or your medical information,
but we're going to follow up with you.
We will get your information
and then we'll ship out this free device for you
that you can have as long as you need it, again.
And then we just follow up with you periodically.
I think it's once every six months.
And then once you're set up,
we'll also follow up with you
just to make sure everything's going smoothly
so if there's any issues, we always want to hear about it.
We're here to make this as simple as possible, so.
And the other thing I can note too is if you are tech-savvy,
you can go to our website, En-VisionAmerica.com,
scroll to the very bottom of that homepage,
and there's a pharmacy lookup.
It'll even let you, it will automatically know
your zip code, and it can pull up
within a 10, 15, 25-mile radius,
and it'll show you all the pharmacies around you
that do offer it.
That's excellent.
And I think the best part of that is that
is that it sounds like if there are roadblocks,
you know, sometimes pharmacies don't know things
or they're overworked and understaffed
and it can be problematic to keep calling and calling
and going, "Where's my ScripTalk?"
It sounds like all of those things
are really handled behind the scenes.
So, the patient gets things started, and then after that,
it's a conversation between En-Vision America
and the pharmacy.
And eventually you get your device,
or you get your app and right there
you have accessible medication without having to,
sometimes it feels interminable, you know,
going back and forth with pharmacies
and bureaucracy and such.
So, it's good to see that that is not an issue.
We do our best to make it as easy as possible.
Absolutely.
Is there anything that either of you
would say to somebody
who's thinking about contacting En-Vision America right now,
or they're thinking about doing this,
but they're still kind of on the fence?
Yes, I do have a good thought on this one.
I always say, don't wait for tomorrow,
so you want to be prepared.
You want to be prepared in case your eyes
are not intact that day.
Your environment makes a huge difference
of how you see from day to day.
Be prepared, have this as your plan B,
because you don't want to wait till tomorrow
and tomorrow you can't read it.
Certainly, thanks so much for that, Monica.
Jenna, any final thoughts from you
that you'd leave the listeners with before we go?
So, anything that we can do to help,
even if you just have questions and you're on the fence,
please just give us a call
and we'll talk you through the options.
And if you're not ready, you're not ready.
We're not going to make you do anything
you don't want to want to do,
but we do want to talk to you
about what's available and what we can do to help you
just be a little bit more safe and independent at home.
And it actually is a win-win situation.
So, if there's ever any hesitation, it's out there,
it's available, take advantage of it.
There's not a lot of things free in the world,
and this is one of them.
Well, thank you both so much for stopping by
and sharing this information with us
and just sharing your passion
for making sure that people have what they need
to be as independent as they can be.
We will have information in the show notes
about how to get in touch with En-Vision America.
So, check that out.
And thank you both again for stopping by
and thank you all so much for listening.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you Ricky, we appreciate you and
your audience.
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