The more medicine you take, the harder it can be to remember all the important details about them. A medication list is a helpful tool to keep all the details about medicines you take in one place.
Medication Lists
Providers recommend medicine because it helps you. It can hurt you if you mix the wrong medicines together or if you do not get the right amount of a medicine. Having a list you can show providers is a good way to communicate when and how you take your medicines. Having a list helps ensure you receive the best and safest care when in an emergency and when you go to the doctor’s office, hospital, or pharmacy.
The list you make needs to include information about of all the medicine you take and any allergies that you have to medicine.
- Put all the medicine you take on your list including prescriptions you take
- Any medicine you buy over the counter
- pain medicine
- allergy medicine
- vitamins and minerals
- herbal supplements
- Medication patches
- Inhalers
- Creams
- Implanted medication devices like IUDs or pacemakers
It’s a good practice to share your medication list with all your healthcare providers, especially if changes have been made since the last time you saw them. Your providers may not automatically share health records with each other and may be unaware of these changes. It is also beneficial to share with your emergency contact, or any one who else who has the potential to be involved with your care.
Remember to update your medication list every time you start, stop, or change a medicine.
You can look up pills by their appearance. Go to drugs.com/pill_identification, webmd.com/pill-identification, or reference.medscape.com/pill-identifier.
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