AHRQ Resource Helps Patients Take Medications Safely

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, one in four Americans does not take prescription medications as prescribed. Often, it's because they don't understand how to take their medications or because they simply lose track of what they're supposed to take each day. To address this problem, AHRQ has developed free, online, step-by-step instructions patients can use to create a "pill card" at home.

As described in the instructions, a pill card uses pictures and simple phrases to show each medication a patient takes, what it's for, how much to take and when to take it. It includes step-by-step instructions, sample clip art, and suggestions for design and use.

Patients who want to create a pill card will need access to a computer with a Web browser and word processing software, a printer (color is preferred), information about all the medications to be included on the card, and the medications themselves.

The AHRQ guidance walks patients through the process of creating the pill card using a table format to give the name of each medication, show what it is used for, present instructions for taking it and indicate when it should be taken (e.g., morning, afternoon, evening or night). The card uses simple clip art to illustrate various elements of the table, such as using a picture of a sunrise to show that a certain medication should be taken in the morning.

The guide also recommends including pictures that represent the shape of any pills that need to be taken. Patients can compare the pictures on the card to the actual medications to ensure they're taking the correct pills. The guide includes clip art with various pill shapes that patients can cut-and-paste into their cards.

Each card also should include information about the patient, including phone numbers for his or her doctor and pharmacy. Even more importantly, the person who creates the card should add a "created on" or "updated on" date on each pill card, so the patient will know he or she is using the most current version.