One of the most difficult things that I deal with on a day-to-day basis as a provider is medication compliance or adherence. I often see that patients are not filling there meds at the correct frequency or they didn’t get the new prescription picked up. Up to 60% of patients for get what their PCP has told them as soon as the visit is over, making compliance difficult. Another alarming statistic, 1 in 5 prescriptions are never filled (that means I waste a huge amount of my time! 😂), and 50% aren’t even took as they are prescribed—this costs the healthcare system 100-300 BILLION dollars a year in additional costs due to noncompliance and worsening outcomes!! 😳
One way to improve compliance is to have your PCP write down specifically what you need to do at your visit. I know that I have written down on a piece of paper many times, specific instructions on what to do when they leave my office. Ask questions, if you don’t understand why you are being given a medicine or what it is for.
READ the bottle! Oftentimes I have patients who never look at the bottle to see what time that it needs to be took. Is it once a day or twice a day?? Is it DIFFERENT than it has been before? Also, do you have 2 or 3 of the SAME bottles of medicine but the pills LOOK different and you are double or triple dosing? I see this A LOT!
And finally, set an ALARM! There are “smart” phone everywhere nowadays that can be programmed for a litany of functions.
Here are a couple of links to apps that can help you remember: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pill-reminder-medication-alarm/id863327251
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/max-pill-reminder/id1502063556
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/medisafe-medication-management/id573916946
Remembering your medicine is a VERY important part of your treatment! If it’s NOT WORKING-see your PCP for an alternative-either it’s the WRONG treatment/medicine or the wrong diagnosis! Leave the diagnosing to your PCP and not Dr. Google! Trust we have reasons that we prescribe a certain medicine and it’s ok to question the decisions we have made!
Clarify……Understand……and Remember! Hopefully you can become medication wise!
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6645a2.htm
Becoming Wellness Wise 
This is so true lol. 🙈
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