Update Your Medication List with Us

We need your help. Medical care has become increasingly complex with respect to medications. There are more medications with more indications to take them and more providers prescribing them than ever before. With more people on more and more medicines, the chances for confusion, side effects or errors in administration increase. We need your help to eliminate these sources of error and protect your safety.

We want you to help us make sure that we know exactly what medications you are taking - in what dose, how often and what, if any, side effects you may be experiencing. While time does not always allow for this review at every visit to the office, it is important to take the time to do this at periodic physical appointments or a periodic health review visit.

To accomplish this, we ask you to do the following at those types of visits:

• Please bring all medication bottles you have at home.
• Make a list of all your medications, including how much you take, how often and the reason you think you are taking it.
• Let us know of any allergic or adverse reaction you have had to medication.
• Bring questions or concerns you have regarding your medications.

We will:

• Review all the medications you bring to us.
• Correct your list so it accurately reflects what you are taking and update the list in our electronic record.
• Listen for any signs or symptoms that might be related to your medications.
• Make sure that you understand your medications and why you take them.
• Offer advice when we are aware of less costly medication options.

Medication safety begins with an accurate understanding of what medications you are taking from the kind of dialogue described above. South Shore Medical Center has extended that understanding by working closely with the information technology team at South Shore Hospital to create a secure and encrypted access to the medication list that we maintain at the medical center for all of our patients. We think this will facilitate the care you receive within our system whether it is as an outpatient or inpatient.

Working together, we can make sure that you are taking medication in the safest manner possible - only those medications you need, in the correct dosage and with a good understanding of why you are taking them. Thanks in advance for helping us in this process as we continue to strive to keep you healthy in the safest way possible.

Edward W. Nalband, MD
Medical Director