We all know about the rising costs of health care, and how expensive prescription medicines can be, especially for seniors. But do you know how much it can cost if you don’t properly take your medications?
According to government estimates, each year in the United States more than 125,000 people die from a failure to properly take their medications, adding approximately $100 billion in preventable additional hospitalization, emergency room, and repeat physician visit costs to the health care system. At least 10% of all hospital admissions are a result of this problem. For seniors, the statistics are particularly alarming:
Up to 23% of nursing home admissions may be due to an elderly person’s inability to self-manage her prescription medications at home.
Over 21% of all drug-related health complications are caused by patients failing to adhere to their medication regimens, whether by accident, negligence, or intent.
Up to 58% of all seniors make some kind of error when taking their medications, with 26% making mistakes with potentially serious consequences.
In studies of elderly patients on long-term cholesterol-lowering statin therapy, researchers found that 57% had stopped taking them after 6 months, and 74% had stopped by the end of five years.
MEDICATION MANAGEMENT There are lots of reasons why people neglect to take their drugs properly. The most common reason is that they just forget, which seems innocent enough. The average senior takes about seven different medications (both prescribed and over-the-counter) every day, so it’s little wonder that it can be difficult to remember and keep track of them.
Numerous devices and strategies have been developed to help seniors keep track of their medications. You can find some of the relatively inexpensive “reminding gadgets” at your local drugstore, devices that help you organize your pills and/or remind you when to take them with visual and sounding alarms. You can also find very sophisticated reminding/dispensing systems that can cost hundreds of dollars, as well as services that will telephone you to remind you. Even the drug companies themselves are getting into the act, as some have set up free programs in which company representatives, usually a nurse, will contact patients who are taking their proprietary brands of medications and encourage them to finish and refill their prescriptions.
It always helps to have a caregiver present who can ensure that someone is taking his prescriptions on time and on dose, but that’s not always possible. Some retirement communities and most assisted living communities provide senior living with medications management as a service to their residents, which may be a good option for those who don’t have family members nearby to check on them for their medications (among other things). But even the best care and the most vigilant monitoring will be undermined if the patient himself is not willing to take the medications.
Source: A Place For Mom