LAMY CENTER CAREGIVER CONNECTION: HOSPITAL STAYS, MEDICATIONS, AND YOU

Written By: Rudi Lamy, MLS, MAS, Consultant to the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging


A Forward and Apology

I apologize to my readers for the delay in posting. We’ve had some health problems at home that have required my full attention, and which slowed me down. My very great thanks to all of the hospital health care personnel, ER and inpatient, who were involved in caring for my wife.

That said, this experience also gave me the opportunity to practice what I am about to preach.

Hospitalization Happens

Whether it starts with a surprise visit to the ER or is planned, an inpatient stay in a hospital is likely in your loved one’s future.    To paraphrase Erma Bombeck’s 1978 New York Times bestseller, life is like a bowl of cherries and you will, at some point, find the pits.

You will be watching and waiting while the staff at a hospital, or other medical or psychiatric facility, takes responsibility for the care of your “patient.” You need to be prepared to assist them in their work. Remember that the very best inpatient care begins with you. For some insight into what you as a caregiver can do before and during a hospital stay to assist the personnel who will be caring for your loved one, I recommend reviewing the Hospitalization Happens pamphlet from the Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center.

Medication Prep

There are a great many tasks that will require your attention to prepare for an inpatient hospital stay. Here, however, I am going to concentrate on prescription medications.

I’ve learned over time that the most important thing you can do to prepare for a hospital stay is to keep an up-to-date list of ALL of the medications your loved one is taking — prescription and over-the-counter (OTC). The Lamy Center has published “The Caregiver’s Guide to Using Medicines,” which you should find both useful and informative. My wife and I have both had our fair share of hospital sleepovers. One element that they have all had in common is professional health care workers asking about the medications we take. Over time, I created a document that lists this information, which I keep on our computer. I update our lists as changes occur and I archive the older versions as well.

You can view an example of the document that I created here. It’s just a simple chart with columns, rows, and headers that display the names, strengths, doses, and diagnoses related to each medication. It even includes the name of the prescribing physician.

One element that I have not yet added, but plan to add in the near future, is a list of known allergies and adverse reactions.

Now, this chart is no help if it’s only on the computer, so I keep updated copies in both my and my wife’s wallets. If we are taking a planned trip, I’ll also print out a couple of extra copies. That way, I have only to hand a copy over and say, “Keep it, it’s yours.”

Simple though it is, the list consistently garners surprise and thanks from health care providers. They so rarely have such an organized listing to work with.

Returning Home

During the hospital stay, and surely once your loved one has been discharged, you will probably find that your catalog of prescription medications has been altered to reflect your new circumstances. These changes may be short term or long term. Either way, you will need to know how any new medications work factor into your existing dosing schedule, how they might interact with your other medications, and how best to use them all safely and efficaciously. Advice from your doctor and pharmacist will be invaluable. You may also want to review “Safe Use of Medicines for Older Adults” from the National Institute on Aging.

Whether you try my method, use another format you find online, or design your own, remember that you are dealing with medications. You must not take the job of keeping track of prescriptions lightly.

Thanks for reading,

Rudi Lamy
Caregiver

6 Comments

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  • I really appreciated your blog post. I even printed off the medication sheet you devised. It is a really great idea and both easy to manage and necessary. Shouldn’t be too hard to devise one for myself. Many thanks for sharing your wisdom.

  • THANK YOU for sharing this and thank you for writing it! Just returned from New Jersey, where I’ve been on and off through the summer, largely due to my dad’s hospitalizations. I will share this with my mom because it’s very helpful!

  • I have used a printed medication list with a column for medical necessity and a column for dosage and time to take meds. This has been especially helpful to me, but much appreciated by medical staff who request the information.

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