By: Katie Gibas
YNN - Your News Now - Syracuse / Oswego / Auburn - Mid-State New York
If you've ever forgotten whether or not you've taken your medicine, you're not alone. It's such a common issue that companies are developing strategies to help people remember. One of those is the Rx Timer Cap, which tells you the exact amount of time since the pill bottle was last opened. As our Katie Gibas reports, one pharmacy chain thinks it's so important that they're giving the product away.
NEW YORK STATE - 01/11/2012 -- For those taking medications regularly, it can become such a habit that sometimes you might forget whether or not you actually took your medication for the day.
"I probably get at least two or three calls a day just, 'Oh, what do I do if I don't remember if I took it. Should I take it now? Should I take it tomorrow,'" said Meaghan Fahd, a pharmacist at the Tops in Baldwinsville.
That's one of the reasons Tops Friendly Markets' pharmacies decided to introduce the Rx Timer Cap, which is a special pill bottle topper that tells you how long it's been since the bottle was opened.
An independent study of 10,000 people found a 33.9 percent increase in medication compliance over three months for those using the Rx Timer Cap. Tops is the first pharmacy in New York to introduce the technology.
"Medication adherence and compliance is a huge problem now, especially in the elderly. They have complex medication regimens and taking several doses of medication different times a day. As you get older, your memory isn't what it used to be, so they're finding it to be very helpful to know if they did take the medicine or didn't take the medicine," said Fahd.
Besides helping you remember if and when you took your pills, the timer cap can also help you find out if you're the only one taking your pills.
"Any controlled medication should be kept in a controlled area. So it would be better to have a safe or something, but that's not always accessible to people. So this would be a good alternative, I would say because if you didn't open your bottle, but the time restarted, you'll know that someone did," said Fahd.
With prescription drug overdose as the number one cause of accidental death in the U.S. and about 10 percent of hospital admissions for seniors caused by improperly taking medications, pharmacists say anything that can help reduce those numbers is crucial.
Tops will be giving away an Rx Timer Cap to anyone who makes a pharmacy purchase between now and February 2012.
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