Template & guide

Medication list template for doctor visits

Bring a written list to every appointment. Not because the clinic does not have one — because the one on their screen is usually out of date, missing anything prescribed elsewhere, and silent about what is actually being taken. The list you bring is the only one that reflects reality.

The template

Copy this into any document, or use your browser’s print function on this page — it prints as a clean single-page table with the site chrome removed.

Why each column earns its place

• Strength, not just the name. “Metformin” is not a dose. Strength errors are among the most common medication mistakes after a hospital stay, because the bottle at home is often the old strength.
• How much and when — the actual times, not “twice daily”. If the evening dose reliably happens at 10pm rather than 6pm, write 10pm. The clinician needs the truth to spot interactions and timing problems.
• What it is for, in plain words. Filling this in usually exposes at least one medication nobody can explain — which is exactly the one to ask about.
• Prescriber. With three prescribers, nobody sees the whole list. This column is what makes that visible in the room.
• Started. Roughly is fine. A new symptom that began around a start date is a lead worth following.
• Notes and missed doses. The single most useful column and the one almost nobody brings. “Evening dose missed about three times a week” changes the conversation from “keep taking it” to solving a real problem — often by moving the dose or switching to a once-daily form.

Questions worth asking at the appointment

Write these on the back of the list. Ten minutes goes fast.

1. Is anything on this list no longer needed?
2. Can any of these be combined, or moved to once a day?
3. Which of these must never be missed, and which are more forgiving?
4. What do we do about a missed dose — take it late, or skip it? Ask per drug.
5. Do any of these interact with each other, or with the supplements on the list?
6. Which side effects should make us call you rather than wait?
7. How long until we should see this working?

Question four is the one families most often lack an answer to, and the one that causes the most anxiety at 9pm. Write the answer next to each medication.

After the appointment: reconcile the same day

The dangerous window is the 48 hours after a change, when the old routine and the new instructions are both live. Do this before you get home:

1. Update the list in the car park, while you still remember what was said.
2. Physically remove stopped medications from the cabinet. A stopped drug left next to the current ones will be taken.
3. Check the strength on the new bottle against the new instruction — before the first dose, not after.
4. Update the reminder times if the schedule changed.
5. Tell everyone else who helps, that day.

Hospital discharge is a different job

Discharge summaries frequently omit medications the person was on before admission, or reinstate ones that were deliberately stopped. Treat the discharge list as a proposal to check, not a final answer: compare it line by line with your pre-admission list, and ask the pharmacist about every difference before the first dose at home.

Keeping the list true without maintaining it by hand

Paper lists rot. The version in the drawer is six months old, the one on your phone is a screenshot of a version that was already wrong, and the missed-dose column is guesswork.

If you already track medications in Pillybot, the visit report is generated from the live schedule and the actual dose history — current medications and times, adherence over your chosen date range, and which specific doses were missed and when. That last part is the column nobody can fill in from memory, and it is the one that gets a schedule fixed.

This template is a communication aid, not a medical record, and nothing here is medical advice.