Approximately fifty to seventy percent of all prescription medications in the U.S. are taken incorrectly. The effects of this prescription misuse account for 3.1 million nursing home admissions each year. More patients in the U.S. die each year from medication mismanagement than from AIDS and automobile accidents combined, and it is estimated that 125,000 deaths per year are caused by improper use of prescription drugs.
One of the major problems in taking prescribed daily medications emanates from patients having to take more than one medication in the form of pills or tablets. A principal concern is determining whether all medications are in compliance with the prescribed daily regimen. Many times this concern is compounded by the requirement that portions of the different medications must be taken at different times during the day.
The fear of taking improper dosages of prescribed medication can be particularly acute in the elderly, many of whom have some degree of mental dementia and can easily be confused as to whether they have taken all of their medications at the correct time. Some patients have difficulty sorting out the medications prior to taking them and taking the medication in a timely manner. Providing medications to disabled or incapacitated individuals can also be complicated because one caregiver may oversee the medication of many patients.
One solution to the problem of taking multiple medications is to pre-package the multiple medications so that users can take the pre-packaged medications at a predetermined time. Generally, these methods of pre-packaging medications are targeted to patients that may lack maturity or mental capacity to take the correct medications at the correct time. F or example, young children in a school or campground, and elderly individuals in elder care centers, or nursing homes are target groups for the pre-packaging of medications. Some of the pre-packaged medications are placed in a small plastic bag, which may be easily misplaced. Other pre-packaged medications are placed in sealed cups that are difficult to open.
Although multiple prescription filling systems are available, e.g. the McKesson PACMED system, these systems have limited capabilities. For example, these filling systems fail to assemble a multiple prescription order that can be easily transported and administered. Additionally, these filling systems fail to effectively organize the multiple prescription medications. Furthermore, the filling systems fail to organize the multiple prescription containers. Further still, the filling systems fail to provide a compliance packaging solution.