Medication Management in Home Care in Philadelphia

Posted Mar 17, 2014 by PHC | Uncategorized

One of the leading causes of hospital admissions for the elderly is mismanagement of medication.  Either taking too many prescribed medications or forgetting to take any at all.  Personal Health Care provides medication set up and reminders to a number of elderly clients as part of our home care service.  We assist our clients with medications by having a nurse sett up and fill an automated medication dispenser that is connected to a monitoring company or with home health aides reminding the clients to take their medications from dispensed containers.  By law a home health aide may not administer medications directly from a medicine bottle but can direct a client to take a pill that has been pre poured by a family member or nurse.

The elderly are extremely vulnerable to adverse reactions to medication errors.  Many of our elderly clients take more than one medication and usually take more than five prescribed medications.  Another factor that causes medication mismanagement with the elderly is hospital admissions and the discharged procedure when changes to existing medications and brand new ones occur.  Many times we find that our clients are unable to sort through all the new medication and with the help of our aides and case management we can help them navigate the changes.  It also important to note that the more involved the family is in the care of their loved one the less involved we generally have to be.  There have been several studies preformed that have indicated medication management has had a positive effect on the patient.  Our goal at Personal Health Care is to insure that all of our patients are receiving their correct medication on a daily basis.