All You Need to Know About Pill Box

Is your elderly struggling to take their medication as directed? If so, the solution may be a primary or automatic pill box. For elderly who have complicated drug regimens, and dispensers help them to organize and manage their meds. This enormously impacts their well-being.

It is common for elderly to take multiple doses of numerous pills every day. By reading the further information, you will learn about the different types of pill box available and factors that you should consider before buying one.

The Importance of Proper Medication Management

It is crucial to take all the medications exactly as prescribed in order to:

• Treat temporary illnesses
• Maintain your overall well-being
• Manage chronic conditions

But, seniors often fail to take their meds on proper time due to a variety of reasons like:

• You have difficulty in remembering if or when to take their pills.
• They find the regimen too complicated.
• Disability people do not understand enough why the medication is necessary, so they stop taking it.
• They find the pill bottle caps too hard to open
• Elderly people often forget to renew their prescriptions on time
• Disabled people cannot read the prescription labels or do not understand the directions written on it

Sometimes circumstances overcome the elderly’s best effort to take medicines on time. For instance, if they accidentally dropped multiple open pill bottles and cannot recognize which pill came from which bottle. This makes them unable to take the medicines. 

But not taking the right dosages of the right pills at the right times can have serious consequences for your elderly’s health. Over or under-medication can increase the risk of requiring emergency medical attention. For these, pill box can make the job of managing medications much manageable.

Types of Pill Dispensers

You have a wide range of options for pill dispensers. Here are the basic types:

Pill Boxes

These are usually plastic containers divided into different compartments for different days. Some may even have compartments for each important time of a day like morning, noon, evening, and night. You can choose any from a simple one-week model or a monthly pill organizer.  A simple pill organizer here is an inexpensive solution for the elderly, who are good at remembering their medicine’s schedule but need some help keeping track of doses.

Pill Box with Alarms

These are similar to basic pill organizers; the only difference is that they enable the elderly or their caregivers to set visual and audible reminders to take the medications. In simple words, one can set alarms. Some models have the alarm and the pill organizer integrated as a single unit. And there are others too that have the alarm as a removable piece.

Automatic Pill Dispensers

These offer the most high-tech technique to manage pills and minimize errors. An automatic pill dispenser has a lock system that is digitally programmed for notifying the user and releasing exactly and the right amount of pills at exactly the right times. More advanced automatic models also function like medical alert systems: They send a text, notification, or phone call to the elderly or the caregiver if a person misses a dose. 

What to Consider When Choosing a Pill Box

Here are some questions you should consider when you compare different pill box’s models:

1. Ease of Use

• How simpler does it make to load the pills?
• Does the clock have a clear and large display?
• If it is an electronic pill dispenser, how easy is it to set the clock and program the alarm? 
• Are all buttons clearly labeled to use?  
• Are the pills actually dispensed? 
• Does the person using it has to open a lid, press any button, or flip the dispenser upside down?

2. Capacity

• Can it accommodate larger pills or tablets?
• Can it handle multiple doses per day?
• How many pills can the pill dispenser hold?

3. Alarms

• Can you record a familiar voice as the alarm?
• Do the alarms have visual cues like flashing lights and/or audible reminders like voices or beeps?
• Are the reminders likely to get the person’s attention without scaring him or her?
• Can one turn off the alarms manually?
• Are there different volume settings?

4. Locks

• Can one lock the dispenser to prevent a person from taking too many pills or taking adequate pills at the wrong times?
• How easy is it for someone to break the locked pill dispenser? (For those with cognitive impairments and addicts, it is important to seal the box cubicles properly. It should open only when it is a time for medication and there should be only one-time dosage to take

5. Connectivity

• Can the device alert the patient whenever a dose is due or missed?
• Does it require an Internet connection or phone line?
• Is any contract required?

6. Portability

• How heavy is it?
• Can one carry the medicine dispenser anywhere or it needs to sit on a counter?
• Can it be taken along on outings, trips, or errands?

Pill box for elderly are a good option with which they can take care of their medical supplements anywhere they want. With this and other medical equipment like forehead thermometer, blood pressure checking machines, asthma pumps (if required), etc., they can travel anywhere they want to. From this, a forehead thermometer is vitally useful when one needs to check temperature before taking specific medications. Likewise blood pressure machines are useful to check blood pressure before taking specific injections or even medicines.