The development of a medication reminder card for elderly persons.

This paper describes the development and testing of a medication reminder card specifically designed for elderly persons on complex drug regimens. The need for such a system was confirmed by a survey of approximately 100 Canadian hospital pharmacy departments where no system provided at discharge by respondents met with our criteria for the "ideal" card. The new medication reminder card was tested in 29 ambulatory and 16 institutionalized elderly persons. Over 75 percent of patients continued to use the card two weeks post enrollment and a majority of ambulatory elderly were still using the card at six weeks. In addition to organizing medications and providing a reminder for patients to take drugs, the card facilitated communication with the pharmacist (a mean of 20 minutes) and with other health care professionals. Patients found the card easy to read and the system easy to understand. Despite time constraints, eight of nine participating community pharmacists indicated they would continue to use the system for select patients. A major obstacle to the use of the card was patient reluctance, for a variety of reasons. Although the card will require further modification in design, it provides a useful alternative as a compliance aid for ambulatory and hospitalized patients on chronic, complex drug regimens.