Patient self-medication on a rehabilitation unit

Abstract

Various self-medication programs have been utilized in order to increase patient independence, medication awareness, and medication compliance. A rehabilitation unit is the site of a self-medication program described in this report. The goals of the program include: educating patients about their medications, fostering of a sense of patient independence, promoting medication compliance, and expediting patient discharge from the hospital. Potential patients for placement into this program must have the ability to live at home or another living situation where self-medication is possible or necessary. This program consists of a supervised and an unsupervised portion, the latter which involves patients taking their medications from a personal supply kept in the patient's hospital room. The pharmacist provides patient training and monitors the patient's progress by meeting with the patient, checking pill counts, and monitoring nursing notes for difficulties with the program. After over 3 years of experience with our program, no medication errors or other problems causing patient harm related to the self-medication program have been identified.