Labeling Medications

Ed Haines: Try out these simple tips for managing medications based on the five rights: right person, right medication, right dose, right time and right storage. Soon you'll be organizing and taking your pills more confidently.

First, it's often the case that you and another person in your household are taking meds. You don't want to grab someone else's pill box or bottle. It's valuable to know you actually have multiple ways at your fingertips to make sure the right pill goes to the right person. Your pillbox may look just like someone else's, so put a mark on it you can see or feel to quickly identify it every time. A tactile mark is simply one you can easily feel. It can be a rubber band, bumped dots, puff paint, or even a scratch or a dent. If you have low vision, a sticker in a color that stands out or a label with your large initials might do the trick. Another option is to use a uniquely shaped pill container, so that it can't be confused for someone else's. You can also keep your meds in a separate area, but in case you forget to put it back or someone moves it, it never hurts to market to.

Organization is key to confidently knowing where your meds are. You may share a medicine cabinet with some other family members, and they may reorganize your medication without you knowing. Even if they're trying to be helpful, what's important is that you always know where your pills are, so be sure to remind others not to move them, and it's really helpful if everyone can agree to keep their pill boxes in separate areas.

Now let's talk about telling your meds apart. There are ways you can label and identify your medications so you can feel with your fingers which is the right one. Take the time to also notice how your pills, different size shapes, smell and texture. You can even have your pharmacist or a family member identify each of your meds. Once you can tell the pills apart, you can use bump dots of different shapes and sizes on the bottles. You can also use large print or craft items like puff paint to add initials on the bottle to identify the med. For example, a large D for diabetes medication and BP for blood pressure pills.

Next, let's take a look at making sure you always take the right dose or amount of any med. You may take several kinds of medication at different doses, and some of them may be similar in shape so you can really use a good system to organize them. Again, the techniques are very simple and low cost. You can mark bottles with rubber bands as reminders of how many pills to take. For example, one band for one pill, two bands for two pills and so on. You can also use bump dots for dosage. For example, one bump dot for one pill, two bump dots for two pills. Just use different sized or texture dots from the ones you use to identify the med. You can scratch a symbol on each bottle to represent the medication and scratch notches on the lid for how many times a day to take it, and you can use puff paint to add one or two dots for how many times a day you need to take the med. Your fingers can quickly recognize this information.

If you use tactile marks for different information, make sure you have a way to remember your system or keep a key of which tactile combination is on which medication. You can audio record the information to help you remember the system you created, and if the size and shape of the pill changes for a prescription, update your system. You can label the bottles with large print three by five cards while the pharmacist gives you information like the med's strength and the number of pills per dose. Then put each medication in a plastic bag with the card you made or attach them to a bottle with a rubber band. If your pills and doses change though, be sure to update current labels.

Let's look at the importance of taking the right medication at the right time. Knowing when to take your meds a straightforward if you take them all at the same time. For example, many folks take their pills with their meals. But when a new prescription doesn't fit this schedule, it becomes especially important that a medication is taken at its correct time. First, if you take several pills, create your own medication list with the right time, dose and method for each med in large print, braille or audio, and this becomes a helpful reference. In fact, having a print copy on you or easily available is very valuable in an emergency.

If you find you need an easy non-visual way to get key information about each med, audio labels can be extremely useful. Check with your pharmacist first. Many pharmacies now participate in a program that lets you use an audio label reader for free. The pharmacist creates the label with the information you need about a med, and you just run the label through a reader at home to get that information easily. It's a simple way to identify each pill, it's dose and when to take it. Organization is pretty key. You can separate pills taken once per day from meds that are taken twice per day using bags or pill boxes. If you're using a pillbox, organize your meds over a shallow tray as you separate them. Then pills won't fall on the ground, and it's easier to keep count as you take them from the container.

You can use a pill box with a different shape from your mealtime meds box, or your pillbox can have different sections for each day. A Velcro tab or contrasting sticker can label the section for the medication you need to take without food. When it comes to non-visual reminders to take a med, there are some easy options. You can use the clock app or set reminders on your smartphone. Just make sure the device is with you at the times you take your meds, or you can use smart speakers like Alexa or just set a alarm clock. There are even vibrating pill boxes if you have a hearing impairment.

Finally, storing meds properly is another part of managing them. Again, pills come with a lot of information including storage directions. Some meds need to be kept cold, while others can be kept at room temperature. In fact, most drugs may be safely stored at room temperature, no warmer than 85 degrees Fahrenheit or 29 degrees Celsius. But did you know that high humidity can make the bathroom one of the worst places to store medication? A dresser drawer in the bedroom is often a better place. Extreme heat, cold light or humidity can affect the strength of many meds, so it's important to access that information and have a way to remember it. You can put the information on your medication list as well as part of an audio label. Managing medication can be a simple everyday process. Some easy ways to label and mark pills will help you make sure the right med and the right dose goes to the right person at the right time.