“An old-fashioned checklist has the potential to keep patients with heart failure out of the hospital — and save Medicare billions of dollars, a small new study suggests.”

USA Today reports that a new study has shown that a simple checklist can significantly reduce the number of patients who are readmitted to a hospital within a month compared to regular discharge instructions. This cost effective patient education tool leads to improved compliance with medication therapy and helps save money and improve patient care.

Read the article here. 

40 to 75 percent of elderly patients either forget to take their medications, overuse them, or take them improperly.

This fact is highlighted in this month’s The Village Family Magazine. The article includes tips for taking medications properly, advice for caregivers, and recommendations for reminder services such as MyMedSchedule: 

“Medication reminder services help patients properly take their medications and are available at little or no cost. These services will contact you multiple times in a day, if necessary, to remind you to take your medications. The site www.MyMedSchedule.com helps you manage your meds for free and, among other things, allows you to set up text or email reminders to take your medications.”

Read the rest here. 

Two nice comments from the MyMedSchedule Facebook page:

“My hubby takes a large amount of pills and the list makes it so much easier when going to a new doctor. The staff is always so thankful to have the dosage and times.”

—Loretta Bell

“I was looking for something for my mom and MyMedSchedule is easy to use, easy to revise as needed, and has been a godsend in helping my mom to keep her medications straight.”

—Susan Cox

“Our pre- and post- lung transplant patients with Cystic Fibrosis have found MedActionPlan and MyMedSchedule very beneficial in staying on top of their medication & inhalation regimens. MyMedSchedule provides a great way for tech-savvy young patients to take ownership of their medication regimens by keeping the medication list up-to-date, having it text their cell phones to remind them to take medications and to print wallet-sized lists to keep with them at all times.”

Lisa Fuller, PharmD, BCPS
Cardiothoracic/Transplant Clinical Pharmacist
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
Phoenix, AZ

”MedActionPlan and MyMedSchedule have been a great fit for our families. Cystic Fibrosis is a complicated disease with even more complicated medications and therapies. Having a Med Schedule allows for our families and patients to incorporate scheduling of their medications with phone reminders, and helps them to learn about dosages and contraindications to their therapies. The MedActionPlan Schedule provides great graphics of the medication, which is important for families and young patients who have difficulty with reading. MedActionPlan and MyMedSchedule can empower both the patient and family to take responsibility and be invested in their healthcare.”

—Stasia, RN, BSN
Cystic Fibrosis Coordinator 

Read this on a blog today--one person recommending MyMedSchedule to a lung transplant person:

“I can’t remember if I mentioned a website that has been very helpful. MyMedSchedule.com is super helpful keeping track of all of my prescriptions, the times to take them, and you can set up refill reminders. I showed my doctor in Oregon and she was really impressed, she’d never heard of it.”

Many thanks to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for the kind words in their latest newsletter: 

“MyMedSchedule.com is a free website that helps patients or their caregivers build personalized medication schedules. By going to MyMedSchedule.com and filling in medications, it is simple to create a clear, personal chart to help patients remember when to take their medicines. The schedule can be printed in a letter- or wallet-sized format for the patient's convenience and is even available with large type if desired. In an emergency at home or away, a first responder would immediately have access to vital medication information necessary to render appropriate aid.

“The concept was developed by Tim Peters. For over 25 years, Peters has created a wide variety of medical education programs and materials for doctors and their patients. Tim knew from experience that when healthcare professionals don't know what patients are taking it can lead to adverse reactions. He also became aware of the problem of medication reconciliation and its importance to patient safety.

“Medication reconciliation involves creating a pre-admission list of a patient's medications. The list is used as a method to reconcile the patient's medications against what is prescribed on admission to a hospital, when the care level changes, or when discharged. Tim wanted to create an easy, user-friendly tool for both patients and professionals to create a personalized medication schedule. He envisioned a schedule that could be maintained and frequently updated by the patient at home. Since people are continually on the go, it could also be taken along on daily outings or longer trips. In the event of an emergency, the schedule could be used as a pre-admission list for medication reconciliation. The result of Tim's work is MyMedSchedule.com.”