State Arizona Senior Elder Prescriptions Health Insurance

By Author: autor
Total Articles: 4328
Comment this article

Your senior loved one may be receiving the state Arizona Senior Elder Prescriptions Health Insurance to help them pay for costs of their prescriptions. If your senior loved one is taking medications, it is important to note that not all medications are alike, there are many things to consider when taking prescription drugs, and is your senior taking their prescription drugs as carefully as they should be? Your senior loved one should be careful when taking their medications in order to not make any life threatening mistakes.

Your senior loved one has to make sure that they are taking their medication as it has been prescribed by their doctor. If you are caring for a senior, make sure that there is an accurate list of medications that your senior loved one is taking nearby at all times. If your senior loved one lives at home and receives homecare services, be sure to have the list of prescriptions near the medicine cabinet or where they keep their pills. You should never make changes to the medications or how the senior takes their medications without speaking with the doctor first. You can always get a second opinion ...
... about prescriptions from your pharmacist if you are worried about your doctor’s prescription recommendations.

You and your senior loved one will need to understand when medications should be taken, how they should be consumed, and you will need to note when the prescriptions actually taken. Keeping a good record of prescriptions is essential for the safety of the senior. Since there are seniors each year sickened by medication mistakes, it is important to try to prevent such mistakes. Seniors may confuse two medications with similar names, which can be quite concerning. A doctor may not have the best handwriting, the pharmacy may mistake one medicine for another, and confusing the names of medications can be a costly mistake. This error can be avoided when you receive a new prescription if you ask the doctor what the medication is used for, the name of the prescription, and the dosage you or a senior loved one should be taking. Always check the label of the prescription at the pharmacy before you take the medicine home to make sure they match what you should be taking, the dosage, the directions, and any description of what the medication is for.

Avoiding common prescription mistakes can protect a senior from an injury or even death. Make sure that you or your senior loved one is not taking two or more drugs that increase side effects. If you combine two drugs with similar side effects, the side effects may be too extreme for the body to handle. Always ask your doctor about the side effects of your prescriptions and have the pharmacy give you print outs of the medications to review. Store all the handouts from the pharmacy so that you can compare notes when you get new prescriptions. If you see the same side effects listed for your medications, ask your doctor or pharmacist if this will harm you. Also, taking the wrong dosage of medication can kill you if you are not careful. Medications can be measured in units, micrograms, and milligrams depending on the medication type. Be sure that you check with your doctor when you are given a new prescription on what unit of measurement the medication should be. Also, a simply written error, a 2.0mg may look like 20mg, this can cause fatality for many seniors. Be aware that you could be taking the generic form of a drug and the brand-name drug at the same time. Be sure that you are not double-dosing on the same medication by reading the name of the prescription and researching the generic names that it could be listed as.

Making sure that you are taking the correct medications, being aware of the common prescription mistakes, and learning about the medications you are taking will help you prevent a prescription mistake that could cost your life.