I am in assisted living. Pills are not coming correctly. Any thoughts? Thank you for any answers.

If you have family involved with your care, you need to have them question why your meds seem missing. There are those who do steal patients meds. If this is happening, that person needs to be fired and kept from handling meds again.

Actually, this should not be happening. There should be an RN in charge. The one in my Moms AL ordered the prescriptions. She is in charge of making sure she is ordering the correct pills. The person doing the med pass is probably a Medtech or at least an LPN. RNs rarely do med passes. Its these Medtechs and LPNs that should know what meds are given because its their job to get them together. There should be a sheet showing what meds were given to who and initialed by the Medtech or LPN. Most places use blister pks. Each shift should be aware of what the previous shift did. My daughter has found mistakes to the point she knew a fellow LPN was stealing meds.

Seems there are no checks and balances done in this AL. If this person is getting incorrect meds how many others are too. And if there has been a manufacturer change, the Medtech should be well aware of that and say " thats a different color/shape because the pharmacy changed suppliers." When questioned, they don't stand there with dumb looks on their faces, THEY find out what the problem is.

Generic differ from name brand too. If there is a generic available, the prescription plan will require that the generic be used unless the doctor says the name brand is the only one that works for that patient. So if you were taking a name brand that there was no generic for, and now there is a generic, you get the generic.

One thing to be aware of is that pharmacies sometimes switch which manufacturer they get their pills from. So, we've found that the exact same prescription can have a different look. We get our prescriptions in the community, but usually if there's been a switch in manufacturers the pharmacist tells us when we pick it up and alerts us that the pill looks different but is the same thing.

Hi Deb -
My mum was in an assisted living facility and medication problems were common.
Don't feel sorry for the nurses. Keeping track of a resident's medications and dosing schedule is a massively important part of their job. When there are problems, it is their responsibility to resolve them. Let's fix this so it doesn't happen again.

1. You need to talk to someone in charge immediately. Facilities differ, but IIRC the staff should include a supervising nurse, an administrator, and an assistant admin. Ask to speak to whoever is available - if they can't help, they should direct you to the staff member who can.
*** If you are having difficulty with staff, you can call the local Ombudsman's office. They will act on your behalf.

2. You need the following information;
*what pills you have been prescribed;
*what medical conditions you are taking them for;
*the dosages of the pills (each and every pill);
*your dosing schedule - the times that you receive medications + the specific pills you are to be given.
**** The facility should have all of your medical information. You can also get this info from your Doctor's office. They would have your most recent and updated records, and they can send/fax over a copy. You should insist on a copy of your own.

3. A clock and a daily journal or notebook. Write down when staff gives you meds - check the clock - and the exact pills you are given. Or, you can ask for the date and time. Take notes every time you receive meds. You can compare this with the info you received earlier (see 2. for reference), and quickly take action if you notice discrepancies.
***Pictures of your meds can be helpful - they can be printed out from most pharmacy-related websites.

Sorry for a rather long-winded ramble. This is an issue that should be resolved, and can be. Please get back to the forum (or to me personally if you want) and let us know how things progress. Take care Deb.

Not just you! Everybody needs the:

Right Medication for the
Right Person in the
Right Dose by the
Right Route at the
Right Time with the
Right Documentation that this has been done.

There's another Right too but it escapes me. Must do my annual online Medications Administration training this week!

Anyway. The point is that what has been happening is absolutely unacceptable and you should be stamping and shouting that it hasn't already been corrected. Safe handling and administration of medications is a fundamental criterion (known here as a Key Line of Enquiry) in all regulators' inspection of facilities.

If your facility is regularly making a cod's of it, keep complaining and keep going higher and higher up the reporting food chain until they get their act together. Do NOT feel bad for the nurses. You will be doing *everybody* in that facility - staff as well as residents - a favour.

I took a close-up picture of the pills my mother needed to take for each dose then printed it out and wrote the name of the medication next to each.

Is there anyone who could do that for you? That way, if they bring you the wrong pills, you have a picture to compare with what they brought, and you could show them.

I’m sorry this keeps happening to you. It must be very distressing. Can you ask to speak to the lead doctor or perhaps the head nurse? Maybe ask to see what they have written down on paper for your scheduled meds and you can see where the errors are happening?

Just remember, “I want to speak to your manager,” lol. Don’t worry about sounding like a ‘Karen’. Well done you for catching this problem and alerting the correct people. If it’s happening to you, it could be happening to others. You never know. It might save someone’s life.