Multi-dose packaging vs. bottled medications

[ilead]

I come from a different country where the medications are packaged separately by each dose in a little paper packet. If there are multiple medications, they are all packaged together for one dose. I never really understood the rationale for putting all the medications in one bottle for however many days of supply there is. I did hear that the multi-dose packaging is available in hospitals for nurses, but only for 3 days worth. I feel like multi-dose packaging would improve adherence because if you wrote down the day and time for each dose on each packaging, you would know if you took that dose or not already and you wouldn't have the problem of mixing up multiple bottles of pills. Obviously there are problems with paper packaging like childproofing but what are your opinions on this?

 

[awval999]

This already exists in the United States.

 

[ilead]

I guess I should have said it more clearly but what's the reason for using bottles over individual packaging? I know that they're available but it's not the default method of dispensing medications. I'm just curious as to pros and cons of each method

 

[rxkrafted]

Usually the bottles are bought because they were cheaper at the time of purchase and we package them into individual dosing units. Otherwise, we would always buy the individual packaged drugs to save time.

 

[Lnsean]

I come from a different country where the medications are packaged separately by each dose in a little paper packet. If there are multiple medications, they are all packaged together for one dose. I never really understood the rationale for putting all the medications in one bottle for however many days of supply there is. I did hear that the multi-dose packaging is available in hospitals for nurses, but only for 3 days worth. I feel like multi-dose packaging would improve adherence because if you wrote down the day and time for each dose on each packaging, you would know if you took that dose or not already and you wouldn't have the problem of mixing up multiple bottles of pills. Obviously there are problems with paper packaging like childproofing but what are your opinions on this?

Pillpack which was recently bought out by Amazon is doing this. As you can imagine, the clusterfuk that is to be when you are trying to have the insurance pay for all the patient's meds at one time to have everything sync together...otherwise you will have Drug X, Y, Z all due and paid on different dates. I'm sure pillpack and Amazon will work with insurers to have this streamlined.

It sounds good on paper but probably difficult to implement and probably doesn't really improve outcomes in any significant way.