Discharge counseling help

[Praziquantel86]

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I'm in the process of teaching a transplant patient his medications before he leaves, and I'm running into a pretty serious speed bump: neither him or his wife can add. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but Prograf doses change pretty frequently and the medication list isn't always available to update.

Since Prograf comes in 5mg and 1mg, I figured the nickel/penny bit would be pretty successful. They got the change part, but making the leap from money to milligrams didn't go so well. The other issue is that neither party speaks English, so this is all getting done through an interpreter (who we work with on all transplant discharges, so she knows the bit pretty well).

I'm going to tape a nickel and penny to their respective medication bottles tomorrow, but I'm not sure how sustainable of a system that is...and I'm out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

 

[spacecowgirl]

Setting up a 4x7 med box?

 

[charfdorn]

I'm in the process of teaching a transplant patient his medications before he leaves, and I'm running into a pretty serious speed bump: neither him or his wife can add. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but Prograf doses change pretty frequently and the medication list isn't always available to update.

Since Prograf comes in 5mg and 1mg, I figured the nickel/penny bit would be pretty successful. They got the change part, but making the leap from money to milligrams didn't go so well. The other issue is that neither party speaks English, so this is all getting done through an interpreter (who we work with on all transplant discharges, so she knows the bit pretty well).

I'm going to tape a nickel and penny to their respective medication bottles tomorrow, but I'm not sure how sustainable of a system that is...and I'm out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

Can you get the script written for 1 mg only? Then it's just counting...

 

[Praziquantel86]

Can you get the script written for 1 mg only? Then it's just counting...

That's what we ended up doing...just going to be rough on the guy when it's 12mg q12. Not to mention the insurance issues...

 

[charfdorn]

That's what we ended up doing...just going to be rough on the guy when it's 12mg q12. Not to mention the insurance issues...

Ugh...

 

[eeyore spice]

I'm in the process of teaching a transplant patient his medications before he leaves, and I'm running into a pretty serious speed bump: neither him or his wife can add.

Really? 5 + 1 = 6? There's something lost in translation. There has to be. If you're old enough to be married but can't add single digits, you probably have a caregiver.

 

[therxist]

Really? 5 + 1 = 6? There's something lost in translation. There has to be. If you're old enough to be married but can't add single digits, you probably have a caregiver.

Not so easy if you have no concept of digits. In order to
do 1 + 5, you will need to know what 1 and 5 actually mean.
I have a feeling these pts come from a remote area in their
homeland where education is zero.