What belongs on your parent's medication list
Every professional who meets your parent will ask for the list, and the version in your head will not survive the third question. This page is about the record only: which fields to copy, where they come from, and how to keep the list current so that the person who does know can read it in ten seconds.
How to use this checklist
This is a recording task. Nothing here tells you what your parent should take, when, or whether anything should change. Those are questions for the pharmacist and the doctor's office, and the point of a good list is that they can answer them faster.
Copy from the labels, not from memory and not from the last printout. Sit down with every box, bottle, tube and packet on the table, including the ones in the bathroom cabinet and the one in the kitchen drawer.
Copy exactly. The same wording, the same numbers, the same units. Do not translate, round, or tidy anything up. If a label is worn or unclear, photograph it and ask the pharmacy to reprint rather than guessing.
Date the list at the top in large type, and put the name of whoever updated it underneath.
When it is finished, take it to the pharmacist and ask them to review it against their own records. Then print three copies: one for the binder, one for the fridge, one for your bag.
The 25 fields to record
One row per item. The first eleven come straight off the label. The rest are the context that makes the list readable by somebody who has never met your parent.
Use landscape orientation and leave the changes column wide, because that is the column that fills up.
Keep everything on one list rather than separate pages for prescriptions and everything else. A second list is a list that will be out of date within a month.
If it will not fit on two pages, the type is too small rather than the list too long. Print it at a size a tired person can read at arm's length under bad lighting, because that is the situation it will be read in.
Nothing in this table is an instruction. Every field is a copy of something already printed on a label, already in the record, or already said by a professional.
- The name exactly as printed on the label, including the second name in brackets if two appear
- The strength as printed — the number and the unit, copied, never converted
- The form as printed: tablet, capsule, liquid, patch, inhaler, drops, injection, cream
- The instruction line from the label, word for word, in quotation marks
- The prescriber's name and the practice it came from
- The pharmacy that filled it, and the prescription number
- The quantity dispensed and the date of the last fill
- How many refills remain, and the date the prescription runs out
- The date this item first appeared on your list
- Whether it is prescription, over the counter, a vitamin or a herbal supplement — one column, four possible entries
- The colour, shape and any marking on the item, for identification only
- Anything bought without a prescription, including from a supermarket, a health shop or online
- Anything that is not swallowed: creams, eye drops, patches, inhalers, injections. These are the ones most often left off a list
- Anything taken only occasionally, marked as such in its own column
- The reason it was prescribed, only if a clinician wrote it down. Copy their wording or leave the field blank
- Allergies and previous reactions exactly as they appear in the medical record, with the date they were recorded
- A photograph of every label, dated, stored with the list
- The date the list was last updated, at the top of the page, in large type
- The name of the person who updated it
- A changes column: what changed, the date, and which professional made the change
- A second page for anything stopped: the name, the date it stopped, and who said so. Keep it rather than deleting it
- The pharmacy's name, phone number, hours, and whether they deliver
- The doctor's office number to call for prescription questions
- Whether a pill organiser or a blister pack is used, and who fills it
- Where the master list is kept, who else has a copy, and the date of the next review with the pharmacist
What to leave off the list
Leave off your own conclusions. A list that mixes what the label says with what you think is happening is a list a professional has to unpick before they can use it, and it costs you the ten seconds the list was supposed to save.
Leave off guesses. If you cannot read a label, photograph it and ask the pharmacy, and leave the row blank until you know.
Leave off anything you have not physically seen. Someone else's memory of what your parent takes is not a record.
Leave off changes nobody wrote down. If a timing or an amount is different from the label, that belongs in the changes column with the date and the name of the professional who said so, not quietly edited into the main row.
Leave off account numbers, insurance IDs and anything else that does not belong on a page that gets handed to strangers. The list travels; keep it to what a clinician needs to read.
And leave off the old version. When you reprint, destroy the previous copy so there is never a question of which one is current.
Put every box, bottle, tube and packet on the kitchen table tonight, including the bathroom cabinet and the kitchen drawer, and photograph each label. That is twenty minutes and it is the hard part. The typing can happen tomorrow, and the pharmacist can check it at the next visit — but the photographs mean the list can be rebuilt from scratch by anyone, from anywhere, if it is ever needed in a hurry.
Questions
How often should the list be updated?
Whenever anything changes, and always on the way home from an appointment or a hospital stay. Reprint, date the new copy, and destroy the old one. A monthly check catches whatever slipped through.
Should I bring the boxes to appointments or just the list?
Ask the office what they prefer, because practices differ. Many ask for the actual packages at a first appointment or a hospital admission. Bring the printed list either way — it is the copy they can keep.
Do over-the-counter items and supplements really belong on it?
Put everything on the list and let the pharmacist decide what matters. Anything bought in a supermarket, a health shop or online counts. It is not your job to filter the list; it is your job to make it complete and accurate.