Two Nashua pharmacies use technology to prompt patrons to take medication
Staff photo illustration by COREY PERRINE Two Nashua pharmacies have recently incorporated a service that sends messages by text, e-mail or phone to individuals reminding them when to take their pills.
A pharmacist can’t stay by your side to remind you when to take medication.
But a new service offered by two Nashua pharmacists perhaps does the next best thing. The program sends messages by e-mail, phone or text with reminders that it’s time to take a pill.
Rice’s Pharmacy and Wingate’s Pharmacy started using My Dose Alert two weeks ago and have already heard raves from customers, the owners of the two pharmacies said.
“It’s very timely; very relevant. It’s an innovative approach to make sure patients are taking medications on time,” said Gary Wingate, owner of Wingate’s Pharmacy.
Roger Hebert, owner of Rice’s Pharmacy, said even a pharmacist needs a reminder to take medicine.
“I’ve taken antibiotics before, but when I start to feel better, I forget about taking the next dosage,” Hebert said. “Even knowing what I know, I still forget.”
Forgetfulness, a busy schedule and other reasons are behind an alarmingly high number of people not taking their medications, Rice and Wingate said.
The National Council of Patient Information and Education claims that 84 percent of people on prescriptions blame a poor memory when they fail to follow their medication schedule.
And in a study released last week by NCPIE, 54 percent of Americans say they don’t consistently take prescriptions as instructed even though 87 percent of them believe those medicines are important to their health.
My Dose Alert aims to get people on track and stay there, Rice and Wingate said.
Customers, and even those who don’t patronize Wingate’s and Rice’s, are welcome to use the program the pharmacists said. It’s free of charge.
Medication users just need to fill out paperwork, including a patient-information release form, and their names, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be put into a computer system.
A third-party source contacts people in the program. At a certain time of day, participants will get a phone call, text message or e-mail reminding them it’s time to take a prescription medicine or even a vitamin.
The information will not be used for marketing or other purposes, Wingate said.
The program is offered by the National Community Pharmacists Association. So far Rice’s and Wingate’s are the only two pharmacies in New Hampshire offering My Dose Alert, according to the program’s Web site.
Wingate said “It’s hard to say” how many people have signed up for My Dose Alert through his pharmacy but estimated it’s several dozen.
Rice said he has a few customers taking advantage of it so far but expects more to jump on the opportunity as word spreads.
Albert McKeon can be reached at 594-5832 or amckeon@nashuatelegraph.com.
