HIPAA-compliant online medication management

Written on August 4th, 2010 by tasha

Smooth transitions of care require a solid understanding of medication needs and changes. Often the management of new regimens falls to family members. How to be sure they understand what the new medications are, when to take what, and any special instructions?

In this blog post I’m excited to share a free service available to families at MyMedSchedule.com. (I receive no financial compensation for my description, by the way. I’m just impressed by what they offer.)

In addition to the simple interface, I especially like that there are many schedule formats to choose from:

• Schedules that include pictures of the medication
• Schedules that include special instructions
• Wallet-size schedules
• Schedules presented as weekly or monthly checklists
• Schedules in Spanish

MyMedSchedule also offers several formats for online reminders:

• Text and/or email messages at the appointed dosage time
• Text or email refill reminders

The advantages of online medication lists are many:

• One can always find the most current schedule online. (Print medication lists can be obsolete, even if they were printed out just the day before. One never knows.)
• Updates can occur in real time. No delays.
• Medication list can be accessed from the ER. Whether the patient is traveling, or simply has an emergency situation, all the family needs is the login to let the ER team know what medications the patient has been taking.
• Physicians and other providers can be given access, with patient permission, to update the list themselves, or to view what other doctors have been prescribing. No more dumping all the medication bottles into a brown paper bag for the doctor’s appointment!

MyMedSchedule is very simple to navigate. And as an advocate for health literacy, I am pleased to report that they clearly are applying principles that promote usage by people with low reading levels and computer literacy. You don’t need to be a techno-nerd to create a medication schedule!

Although the site is set up for patients and families to complete, as a care provider, you can certainly establish an account for the client, update it yourself, and give the patient and family their personal username and password.

For medical providers, you can get a branded version at MedActionPlan.com with additional functions. Features of the MedActionPlan include:

• Summary patient lists sortable by physician or disease condition
• Ability to share the document with other providers in a HIPAA-compliant environment (providing you have patient permission).
• An appointment calendar for reminding patients of their follow-up appointments.
• A printable page for prompting patients/families to daily record weight, bp, etc.
• Patient education for specific diseases such as CHF, diabetes, etc.

The brandable version is available free of charge to medical providers as it is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. (The ads do not appear on the patient version of the site; and those ads that do appear in MedActionPlan are simply on the provider’s initial page after login.)

As an added bonus, MedActionPlan is not only HIPAA-compliant, but also HL7 compliant. This means that it can dovetail with a provider’s existing HL7 electronic medical record, although there is a fee to align the fields so they port over seamlessly.

Even small companies that do not yet have electronic health records can take advantage of the collaborative power of the Internet by using MyMedSchedule.

As demonstrated in the Care Transitions Intervention, medication management is key to reducing unnecessary hospitalizations. Even if you are not dealing with a client’s recent hospitalization, supporting families to understand and comply with medication regimens will go a long way to improving quality of care.

What are you using to help families keep track of their loved one’s medication schedule?

Tags: Care continuum
Posted in Collaboration, Elder Care, Technology

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