Ask a Doctor

Q: In my household, we unfortunately need to take a large number of medications. Keeping track of all the bottles, the right dosing amount and schedule and so on is difficult at times. It also worries me that a mistake can easily be made. Is there anything that can help dispense our medications properly and safely at home, like the machines at hospitals?

A: Errors in taking medications lead to a reported 1.3 million hospitalizations a year and nearly 125,000 deaths. The more medications you take, the more opportunities there are to make an error.

Hospitals have long used medication-dispensing computers and machines to ensure patients receive the right dose of the right medication at the right time. Now, that technology is available for home use in a small machine called spencer by Med X Services. The device is prefilled by a certified pharmacist and dispenses the appropriate number of pills at the specified time. It eliminates the need for sorting or counting. It also provides reminders and alerts, as well as showing an image of the dispensed medications to avoid confusion. If you miss a dose, spencer will alert a caregiver or pharmacist so follow-ups can be done. It also can collect biometric data such as blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

— Charles Crump, M.D., Parkridge Medical Group; member, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society