You may have not given much thought to how your medication is packaged. You go to a pharmacy, pick up your orange labeled bottles or blister packs, bring them home, and then disperse them into your own pill containers.
But modern techniques in medication packaging — capably carried out by a trusted, local pharmacist — can aid patients in reliably sticking to their prescription plan. Whether you live at home on your own, reside in a senior community, have an at-home caregiver, or employ those who administer pharmaceuticals, medication packing options can help ensure you or your patients never miss the needed treatment.
And staying on a regular prescription plan is more challenging than most think, and not doing so is potentially more dangerous than many realize. Those concerns can be mitigated with medication packaging solutions, where prescriptions reach the patient prepared in single-dose forms that make it easier to remember what to take, when to take it, and ensure you’re taking the right medication.
Why It’s Important to Take Your Medication On Time
Adhering to your medication routine means taking your medications as prescribed — the right dose, at the right time, in the right way, and at the right frequency. If you’re not taking your prescriptions as given by your doctor or instructed by your pharmacist, your ailment or disease has a much higher chance of getting worse, which could lead to hospitalization or even death.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), failures to adhere to medication plans cause 30 to 50 percent of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths annually in the United States. The CDC also found that 25 to 50 percent of patients being treated with statins — cholesterol-lowering medications — who stop their drug therapy within a year have up to a 25 percent increased risk of dying.
Other findings from the CDC included that 20 to 30 percent of new prescriptions are never filled at the pharmacy. Half the time, medication is not taken as prescribed. For patients with chronic diseases, the majority take less medication or stop altogether after just six months. Lastly, only 51 percent of patients taking medications for high blood pressure continue taking their medication during their long-term treatment.
There are many reasons patients fail to comply with their medication routines. Some may not understand the directives or experience forgetfulness. Some have multiple medications with different regimens, which are harder to track.
At Lakeview Pharmacy, our experienced and knowledgeable team has the expertise to craft medication packaging solutions for every type of patient. In operation since 1974, Lakeview Pharmacy has helped provide care at assisted living homes for the last 35 years and now care for nearly 1,000 patients at more than 140 facilities.
With a variety of options for long-term care, Lakeview Pharmacy is equipped to make sure you, or your patients, follow through on adhering to their medication plans.
There Are Many Benefits to Modern Medication Packaging
Sometimes referred to as convenience packaging or compliance packaging, medication packaging offers a swath of benefits to patients or those overseeing the care of others.
First, compliance packaging offers protection and containment. The medication is secure in separate containers for each dosage, and the packaging keeps out potential contaminants such as light, moisture and oxygen.
Compliance packaging is safer as well. The self-contained units are cleaner — they are filled in a lab environment — than the average pill box at home. And because compliance packaging is filled directly by your pharmacist, there will be no risk of mistakes when filling the daily segments. It eliminates the risk of taking the wrong medication, or the wrong dosage, which can sometimes happen when patients fill in their own pill boxes.
Medication packaging also offers easily accessible information. Many options include instructions, dosages, manufacturing dates and potential side effects printed on the packaging itself. Most are also color-coded for the time of the day that they should be taken, which allows patients to know exactly when to take the medication.
And, as the name implies, convenience packaging makes it easier to follow your medicine routine. The packs are usually detachable and portable from one single dose to the desired quantity. Going away for the weekend? There’s no need to take your entire pill box or bottle, just take the number of tabs. Unsure if you took your morning dosage? Just look at the packaging to see if it has been used.
Lakeview Pharmacy Offers Several Kinds of Compliance Packaging
Lakeview Pharmacy is dedicated to helping you simplify and improve your medication regimen, or the regimens of those in your care, and make medication adherence less time-consuming and frustrating. Among the options Lakeview Pharmacy offers are Medicine on Time (M-O-T), Dispill and single-dose “bingo” card solutions.
M-O-T blister packets hold up to six medications to increase organization and save space. The packets are separated by time, and each bubble is labeled with the patient’s name, date, time and drug name. The calendar cards are color-coded, and can be easily separated into individual pill cups and taken on the go. Lakeview Pharmacy will refill the M-O-T packets every month, and will double check dosage for each patient.
Dispill is a patented, cold-sealed, multi-dose packaging system that makes it easier to manage and take medication. Perfect for patients living at home, Dispill features 28 easy-to-open individual blisters containing the prescribed medication with color-coded reminders about when to take it — yellow for morning, white for afternoon, orange for evening, and blue for bedtime. Like M-O-T, Dispill packets are filled by the pharmacist directly and detachable so they can be taken with you.
Single-dose bingo cards are excellent solutions for compliance packaging in a group setting. Cards can contain single doses, or all the pills, that a resident would need to take at a given time. Each individual pill cup is labeled with the resident’s name, medications and dosages. They are easy to punch through and extract the medication from, but also strong enough to protect against accidental punctures.
Contact Us for All Your Pharmaceutical Needs
Lakeview Pharmacy has been proud to serve Racine, Wis., and the surrounding area, for nearly five decades. Whether you’re looking to improve your medication packaging, or are interested in prescription delivery or mobile refills, or curious about CBD Oil, Lakeview Pharmacy can serve and aid you in all of your pharmaceutical endeavors.
Contact us to find out more about how we can help you today.