Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)SUMMARY: this is an excellent, reliable dispenser that can be programmed for 4 to 30 days (depending on frequency of doses) for people who have the ability to remember what the alarm is for, how to get the meds out of the dispenser, and who will take the meds very soon after taking them out of the dispenser.
THE PROBLEM:
After finding out that two older adults I am responsible for were having problems remembering to take their medications, I started putting a week's supply of med doses in pill minders (the plastic kind with little compartments). When they started missing doses, I bought a talking med alarm clock, and that seemed to help for a while. Then they again started missing doses, and sometimes they took out meds, forgot about them and left they lying around, and then found them and put them back in the wrong compartments. In desperation, I paid the $400+ for this product, after doing research on all the available models.
ADVANTAGES BASED ON MY RESEARCH:
For its price range, this seemed to have the deepest med compartments (you never know how many or what size pills might be added to someone's med regimen) and the most "programmable events"/compartments (in my case I wanted five doses/day for at least five days at a time--this dispenser has 28 compartments). It also had an alarm that went on for 90 minutes before advancing to the next dose, which was good if they were asleep or stepped out for a few minutes. It has an AC power cradle it's placed in so the back-up batteries aren't used up. If someone is going out, the next dose can be dispensed immediately to take along (and this button can also be concealed). You get an extra tray so you can fill one and have it ready to switch when the current tray is empty--and you don't lose all the programed med times--just have to resent the number of filled med compartments. And it can be locked, so one doesn't have to worry that anyone will put meds back in the wrong places or take them too early/often.
IN ACTUAL USE:
I (and my older friends) have now been using this dispenser for several weeks and it has been excellent. Since the alarm (you can choose from three) won't shut up until the unit is actually picked up and the pills are shaken out into one's hand, that usually guarantees that the meds will at least get into his/her hand. If the meds are not removed, after 90 minutes of alarm the compartment advances and skips that dose--which means you can tell if any doses were missed when you open it up to put in a new filled tray (in my case, no doses have been skipped, but when my friends thought they missed doses I could tell that they hadn't--or at least, that they had taken the meds out of the dispenser at the right time).
In this case we are talking about a married couple using the dispenser, so it has also helped that I can program first her dose, then his, right after each other (I chose about five minutes apart) for the times they both take meds.
STRATEGY:
Obviously, the weak point of any automatic med dispenser is that it doesn't guarantee that the person will do the right thing after the alarm goes off, or that after the meds get into the patient's hand, that they will be taken. So the person has to have a memory adequate to learn to recognize the alarm, recognize who it is for (in my case, since it's dispensing meds for a couple), and take them immediately so there is no chance to put them aside and forget them. If your loved one (or you) can't learn to do this, the dispenser won't help.
The couple taking the meds were doubtful about all the "technology" and had trouble remembering what to do when the alarm went off. So I did two things from the beginning:
1. I put large type informational signs on the top of the dispenser (there's a fair amount of room) listing who took which dose of meds when (ex: "Fred-9:30; Mary-9:35"), what to do when the alarm went off, and the need to "TAKE MEDS IMMEDIATELY!" I went over the written instructions several times, and had them go through the drill of picking up the dispenser off its cradle and shaking the dose into their hand, then putting it back on the cradle.
2. I then called the couple a minute or so before every med dose time for the first week, and stayed on the phone until they heard the alarm and reported responding to it correctly. They got sick of me calling after the first few days, but they learned how to use the dispenser. I think that some people with memory problems may seem more impaired than they are because caregivers don't know how (or don't have the patience--understandable) to help them learn effectively.
In any case, based on several weeks of using this pricey but effective (in my case) dispenser, I would highly recommend it.
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