1700 Medication Dispenser, with Flashing Light (1700FL)

This has worked well for my MIL to ensure her morning medication is taken at the correct time and in the correct dose. She has become very forgetful and had become unreliable about her medication, sometimes omitting a dose, sometimes taking an extra. At assisted living the cost for the facility to supervise her medication (she only takes one pill a day), would be close to $1000/month. So this medication dispenser, which I previously thought was pricey, is a bargain. It is easy to set up and easy to use safely and accurately. It is a great solution for us.

This thing is awesome. My sister loves it so she doesn’t have to remember if or when she took her medication. The alarm is adjustable so you can choose how long that (very loud beep) continues. If she misses one dose, the machine moves to the next position and she cannot overdose. Very easy to use. I wish it came with cards to mark the slots for two times a day, not just three and four doses per day. It’s not a deal breaker by any means, I just labeled it with a market myself. Going to get an extra one so I can swap the trays out and not have to load them in front of her. Well done Med-ready!!!

I have an older relative who is in the early stages of Alzheimers disease, and he is so forgetful, he could never remember to take his pills. This machine works great for him. He has used it for two or three years, and with the help of this Medready machine, he now takes his pills about 90% of the time. He takes pills twice daily, which means I can load up this Medready with 14 days of pills. Initially, he was resistant to using it, because he claimed he never forgot to take his pills (so how come a 30-day supply of pills would last 8 weeks?) But once he started using this machine, he began to like it. The Medready comes with some instructions for how to get someone accustomed to using it. They suggest that when you first start using this, you telephone your relative at the exact time of day the machine is set to dispense the pills. That was good advice, and worked for us. After using the machine for a couple of weeks, he said what a great machine it is. Okay, so fast forward two or three years. I recently visited this older relative one morning, and I saw that the Medready machine was missing from his apartment. Apparently he had gotten confused, and tossed it into the dumpster. This happened twice over a period of several weeks. So after buying a replacement Medready machine, I drilled holes in the base of the machine, and I bolted it to my relative's dining room table. Now he can't remove it, and for the past month he has once again been taking his pills just fine. Let me comment on some of the other reviews I have seen here. Some people have pointed out that this machine is a Godsend because it has enabled their older relative to continue living independently. That is certainly the case with me, too. I wish we'd had these things 20 years ago, when my mother was still alive, and was suffering from dementia. Secondly, the caregiver (or whoever fills the machine) must take the time to thoroughly READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. From some of the comments, it seems clear that some people never set up their machine properly when they first got it. Yes, I agree that the instructions are not the best. Medready should probably take another look and see if the instructions can be improved. But I am no Einstein, and I was able to figure them out. When you first get this thing, plan to take a couple of hours to read everything, look at the pictures provided, and set it up, and play around with it. You can set the alarms up to four times per day, at whatever times you decide. My model comes with an audible alarm and a flashing alarm light. But I actually have the audible alarm turned off, because just the sound of the machine activating is fairly loud by itself, and I knew my older relative would be irritated by any alarm. Every patient is different, and you will have to decide what will work best for your situation, but I like having the option to activate or de-activate the alarms. (The machine makes sort of a loud clicking sound when it activates, even with the audible alarm turned off. I do wish the flashing light was more obvious though.)

Works well once it’s set up. The instructions for set up are somewhat difficult to follow because the pictures are limited and only show a few details. I tried the YouTube video recommended and it was simply someone reading the same set up directions - no help at all! Finally, I found a video of an elder care worker who actually demonstrated setting the product up. Then, with only a couple of missteps, I completed the task. For a product costing over $150, the manufacturers should do better.

My 86 year old mother (with beginning memory problems) has been 100% successful for the past 4 weeks with this dispenser. MedReady has a bit of a learning curve. 1-We don't use the sound alarm. Sounds like a fire alarm buzzer and there's no volume control. 2-The rotating pill tray makes a loud sound. She's used to it now. 3- I set the light alert to blink for 2 hours. Note:The pills are still available until the next scheduled dose rotates. 3- She had to learn to push the pill cover ALL the way open to deactivate the light alert. When caregivers add pills, make sure the alarm alert lever is pushed back before locking the lid. If it isn't, the alarm won't flash. 4- She uses a small soup bowl to dump her pills into. 5. She was worried that it wouldn't work. Even tried to break into it. She felt better when we had a back up plan... an old pill tray with 4 days of pills. (only my siblings and I know the location) 6-As in the instructions, I was with her for the first 3 days..either in person, or on the phone when it was pill time. Great product! No more missed doses, mixed up days, overdoses. Highly recommend this.