By Emily Henry
Here’s how I deal with my medicines: I throw them all into a box in the kitchen pantry next to the peanut butter and forget about them. The result is that if on a rare occasion I need a dose of NyQuil, I’ll pull out the crusty bottle and check the expiration date only to find myself transported back to a cold I had in 2007. I used to think of this as simply disorganized, storing old meds with food. So what? No one is going to accidentally make themselves a peanut butter and NyQuil sandwich.
But things have changed. Five months ago, I became a mom.
So when Judy Cohen with the American Recall Center reached out to PVI about the Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Challenge, I thought I had better take part.
“We want to bring attention to a hidden safety hazard found in all of our own homes, our medicine cabinet,” wrote Cohen in an email. “It’s so important that we understand the medications we take, how to store them securely, and dispose of them properly.”
Patient Safety Awareness Week is coming up (March 8th to 14th), and paying attention to your medicine cabinet safe is a crucial part patients can play in keeping themselves, and their loved ones, safe.
The Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Challenge is just three 3 simple steps:
1. Know your medications
– Do you take your prescriptions as prescribed?
– Do you understand all possible side effects?
2. Secure your medications
– Are your medicines stored in a secured location?
– How do you monitor the amount left in each medicine bottle?
3. Dispose your medications
– Do you know how to safely dispose of any unused or expired medications?
– Have you checked to see if any medications are recalled?
http://www.recallcenter.com/safety-alerts/
So what did I find in my medicine box? The usual old cold medications, cold sore gel, eye drops and other seemingly innocuous, as-needed drug store purchases. But I was also hoarding a host of post-labor medications for pain and other symptoms of new motherhood. I imagined what it would be like if my little girl was rooting around in the kitchen pantry for a snack found this hoard of candy-like pills and syrupy bottles. It was time to move the drugs away from the condiments and store them somewhere out of reach from little hands and curious minds.
