Brown Bag Medicine Reviews for Seniors Help Prevent Unnecessary Drug Complications
Author: Home Helpers Home Care
Senior Care in Clearwater, FL and Surrounding Areas
Most of our clients at Home Helpers are seniors who take medications, vitamins, and supplements for various reasons. Occasionally, our clients have reported experiencing different side effects or troubling reactions. This is not uncommon, because all medications have side effects. However, if side effects occur due to improper dosages or interactions with other drugs and supplements, it can have devastating consequences.
Medications and supplements can be confusing, especially for seniors, but they are an essential component of their physical and mental well-being. It’s easy to forget that the occasional headache or upset stomach may be a side effect of prescriptions, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, vitamins, or supplements, but it happens.
Considering the average senior takes 10 prescription medications, it’s no wonder they’re confused. That's a lot of medications to keep track of and remember, which is why during Talk About Prescriptions Month, I think it’s important that seniors have regular, professional Brown Bag Medicine Reviews to prevent unnecessary drug complications.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) explains, “The Brown Bag Medicine Review is a common practice that involves encouraging patients to bring all their medicines and supplements to their (doctor or pharmacy) visit and reviewing them. The goal is to determine what medicines patients are taking and how they are taking them. The process can uncover medicine errors and medicines missing from your list.”
Here are two sobering practical experiences with brown bag reviews as quoted by the AHRQ:
"Out of 10-15 brown bag reviews, only 2 were accurate."
"On the day of the brown bag review, we had a patient experiencing unexplained symptoms. It wasn't until we looked at his medicine bottles that we realized he was taking a double dose of beta blocker. Had we not had the medicine bottles to identify the problem, we would have sent him to the hospital."
Many drugs have similar side effects to the conditions for which they were prescribed, and they can cause dangerous interactions when combined with others in the body. This is a serious problem because many seniors don't even realize how many pills they are taking, or why, and the potential negative consequences of a high drug load.
So, what is a Brown Bag Medicine Review? I know we are probably one of the last generations to understand “brown bagging it,” but it is a simple way to explain the concept of putting ALL prescriptions, OTC medicines, vitamins, and supplements in a brown bag (or other container), and bringing them to a primary care provider or pharmacist to carefully review for potential adverse reactions, dose changes, expiration, and necessity.
Brown Bag Reviews are an easy way for seniors (and their caregivers) to check that all of their prescriptions match up correctly and that none have expired (which happens more than you think). By bringing in ALL medicines at once, a doctor or pharmacist can check them against each other and ensure that everything is correct before the patient leaves the office or pharmacy.
Again, patients must bring in ALL prescribed or OTC medicines, vitamins, and supplements to discuss potential interactions and to address any questions about whether a medication should be continued or adjusted.
Mixing up your medicine with the wrong dose or taking too many pills can be dangerous, or even fatal. To make matters worse, seniors often forget what they've taken and when. This is extremely dangerous because it could lead to negative interactions and potential overdoses.
The simple practice of a Brown Bag Review may help avoid serious side effects such as confusion, falls, dizziness, fainting spells, and even hospitalization due to adverse reactions between different medicines taken simultaneously by one person.
A Brown Bag Review also helps patients stay on top of their medication schedules, so they don't miss important doses which could lead to health complications down the line, like heart attacks and strokes.
A Brown Bag Review is a great way for seniors to ensure that all of their medications and supplements are working for them, not against them. A thorough check-up by a doctor or pharmacist will help ensure that the medications and supplements are safe for use in combination with each other and beneficial in treating symptoms and conditions for which they were prescribed.
If you or a senior you love would benefit from the assistance of a professional, experienced caregiver to help gather medications and supplements for a Brown Bag Review, offer medication and hydration reminders to stay on schedule, or plan and prepare meals so they eat before they need to take certain drugs, I welcome the opportunity to sit down with you and/or your senior loved one for a no-obligation FREE consultation to discuss the many home care services Home Helpers provides to make life easier.
We, at Home Helpers® Clearwater, are honored to have been ranked among the Home Care Pulse Top 100 Leaders in Experience for home care providers in 2023 and to have received the Best of Home Care® Provider of Choice Award 2023, the Best of Home Care® Employer of Choice Award 2023, and the Best of Home Care® Leader in Experience Award 2023.
We proudly serve male and female seniors in Clearwater, Clearwater Beach, Dunedin, Holiday, Hudson, Largo, New Port Richey, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, Port Richey, Safety Harbor, Saint Petersburg, Seminole, Tarpon Springs, Trinity, and surrounding areas. Home Helpers®…we are Making Life Easier® 727.942.2539
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