Vent: I think having the nursing home manage meds is a mistake

Everyone I know says to let the facility handle prescriptions, but after what happened with my dad last year I can't agree. He was at Shady Oaks in Phoenix and they kept messing up his blood pressure pills, giving him 40mg instead of 20mg twice in one week. I took over and now I personally sort his weekly pill organizer every Sunday morning at 9 AM sharp. It takes me about 20 minutes and I triple check everything against his discharge papers from the cardiologist. The nurses said I was being controlling but I found three errors in the first month alone. Has anyone else had better luck keeping their parent's meds on their own schedule?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia67013d ago

Jokes on me, I'm the one who'd probably mix up their own meds.

stella2212d ago

Flip it around and think about what happens when you take over. My mother-in-law's son insisted on managing her pills at home, and she ended up in the ER twice because he missed a dose of her heart meds and doubled up on another by accident the next day. The nursing home might make mistakes, but they have systems like logs and double checks that a family member doing it alone on a Sunday morning doesn't have. Plus, if something goes wrong at the facility, you can hold them accountable legally or with the state. When you're the only one sorting pills in your kitchen, there's no one else to blame if you mix up a bottle.

nina_taylor13d ago

My aunt had the same problem but at a different place and we found out the nursing home was using a temp agency for night shifts. The temps didnt know the residents and just grabbed bottles off a cart without double checking. We switched her to a place that only uses their own staff and has a locked med cart with photo verification. The errors went way down but honestly i still check her pills every time I visit. Its exhausting but worth it when you catch a 10mg difference.