Medication Safety

How do Doctors check what medications you are taking? Do you tell them from memory, bring a list, or bring the medication bottles to your appointments? Medication safety is a serious issue among older adults. Taking the wrong medications or duplicate medications can lead to hospitalization or even death.

To avoid any errors, it is important for ALL your doctors to know exactly what medications you are taking, including any over-the-counter supplements. We recommend you put all your medication bottles in a zip lock bag and bring them with you to your medical appointments for your doctors and nurses to review. Don’t forget to also bring any eye drops, inhaled medications, or topical ointments. They can review each medicine with you one by one and check for any duplicate therapies or medications that can affect each other.

You can also ask your health care provider to help you create a list of what to take after they have reviewed the medications. Keep that list up to date with any changes that might occur.

Other tips to help improve medication safety: