How to Keep Track of Your Prescriptions and Supplements

Do you run out of prescription medicines, forget to get refills on time, forget what you’re taking, or forget to ask for a new prescription before it expires? Here’s a way to keep those organized on computer, and by your pill minder, ready to remind you.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A weekly pill minder (including morning, noon, evening and bedtime compartments if you need those)
• Your pill bottles with you at the computer

1. Load your week’s supply of medicines in the pill minder – this way you’ll always know when to take each dose, and can tell at a glance if you have taken it. Particularly helpful if you’re absent-minded or super-busy like I am!
2. Line up the bottles so the prescriptions will be on your list alphabetically by medicine name.
3. Set up your page layout for single-spaced, landscape (to print sideways on the paper) – 11” wide by 8-1/2” high. This allows you room for all the information you need, plus room to make notes as you get refills.
4. Unless you get your prescriptions all at one pharmacy, you will need a code (one or two letters) to remind you where to call for refills. Because we use just one pharmacy for all our needs, I use this first space to keep mine and my husband’s meds separate on the list.
5. Sample of my line setups Hit the TAB key, then type in the Rx number of the first prescription, and any other information you need (number of pills in each bottle, dosage, time of day, etc.), the date it was filled and the number of refills left (I put this in parentheses). Under the list of our prescriptions, I also list the supplements we take, and the date we bought them.
6. Save the file in your “Health” folder under a name such as Prescription Inventory. Print it (remember to set your printer for Landscape layout).
7. Check your list to see which pills need to be refilled next – write those down on a shopping list, including the prescription number (and if it needs a new script, call it in ahead of time or call the doctor’s office first – this way the pharmacist can have it filled and ready for you).
8. When you empty a bottle, mark through that date on your printed list – when you get a refill, write that date down with the number of refills available in parentheses. If I haven’t emptied a bottle when I get the new one, I draw an arrow to connect to the new refill date. If you get a new prescription, write that in (all information if it’s a different medicine – or just change the Rx number on your list if it’s a renewal of one you already take). (see image at top of article)
9. When the line of penciled-in refills gets too messy, I pull up the file on computer and change to the most recent dates/refill information for each prescription, add in any new medicines (insert them wherever they fit alphabetically), change prescription Rx numbers if needed, then print a new copy.

Tips & Warnings

• This sounds a lot more complicated than it is – took me years of trial and error and panic of running out of prescriptions to work this out.
• We haven’t run out of any meds since I started this system, and it’s much easier than trying to remember everything the hard way!
• Don’t forget to change prescription numbers when a new script is written!