Tracking Medications For Loved Ones

Are you tracking prescription and other medications for yourself or others?  Many caregivers and loved ones are tracking medications using a spreadsheet or just writing it down on sheets of paper.

 

It has become necessary to track medications because so many are prescribed these days.  As a matter-of-fact, this recent article posted by Senior Care Corner  states "More than 40% of adults over age 65 take five or more medications and one third of these will experience an adverse side effect, which can result in serious health outcomes."  To quote a doctor friend of mine, "we don't do health care in this country (the U.S.) we do sick care."

Keeping track of prescription drugs and other medical information such as drug and other allergies is a very good and necessary thing these days.  Many of us "boomers" are doing this not only for ourselves, but for our elderly loved ones.   But what happens if you lose that list or don't have it with you when you have to answer medical questions about yourself or loved one?  Remembering all of the medications being taken is hard enough to do when you're feeling fine.  What if you're not feeling well or if there is an urgent medical condition that needs to be treated quickly and you can't remember important details or are unconscious? 

That is why we created SafeyMD

 

We at SafelyFiled.com are not youngsters who don't know what we're talking about here. (Read about us).  We are all well "seasoned".  We have our own medications to track and have elderly parents, and even grandparents still living, whom we assist. Tracking our own as well as their medical information, and ensuring it's current and available when needed, both for scheduled appointments or in the event of an emergency, was very challenging for us.  So, we created SafelyMD.

 

With SafelyMD, you have an online form that you can use to fill out all medical information history along with current prescriptions and other medications. But we took it even further. You can also input your doctors' names and contact info, your pharmacist, your emergency contacts (which can be dialed from within the application itself) and even special instructions like your resuscitation orders. Once you have the form filled out, you can download and print a copy of that information to take to medical appointments and provide copies of it for other family members who might need a copy.  Here's a short snapshot of how the form looks online.  It is formatted narrow so it can be easily read on smart phones and tablets.

A short view of the easy-to-use online form in SafelyMD

This snapshot is just a short example of the information you can fill in.  You can input as much or as little information as you want.  This information is kept encrypted within the system and can only be seen if accessed via your emergency data card or by you when you log in, or any others you have granted shared permission to see it.  This means that this form and information is HIPAA compliant as you are the one providing this information. 

You can also print an emergency data card, that can be placed in your wallet, in your vehicle, on the refrigerator of your home or any other place(s) that you may want to put a copy in the event of an emergency.  You can print off as many medical cards as you want. SafelyMD for individuals is only $9.95 annually.

The beauty of this tool is that any time your medical information changes, you can simply log into your SafelyMD account, edit that online form and save it.  You don't have to reprint those medical cards as they will simply point the medical personnel to your online form that you've kept updated.  SafelyMD also comes with an annual reminder that will be sent to you either via email or text (or both) to remind you to do an annual review of your medical information.  You can change that to be more often if you'd like.

If you upgrade to a SafelyFiled membership, you can track medical information for any and all family members within one account.  This is handy especially if you want one account to track yours and your elderly parent's and/or children's information.  If they are capable of doing it themselves, they can have their own account, or you can invite them to participate in your SafelyFiled account and they can update their own forms all within that one membership, at no extra charge.  The cost of annual membership to SafelyFiled for Family is only $29.95 a year and comes with enough cards for 12 family members.

Other Valuable Tools 

There are some other websites that we've found that provide some very valuable information that you might find helpful. They are free and simple to use.

• Drugs from A-Z, listed by both generic and name brand names - RxList.com
• Drug Interaction and Side Affects -  Drugs.com 

Sign up for a SafelyMD account today by clicking here.  It will only take you a few minutes to enroll. You can always come back to your account later to fill out your form and print your emergency data card when you have more time.

Do it for yourself and more importantly, do it for those you love.