Guide

How to keep track of a parent’s medication from another city

You cannot be in the kitchen when the tablets come out. You can still be the one who knows.

Why it is worth doing

Somewhere along the way you became the one who keeps track. Not because anyone decided it, but because you are the one who remembers that the blue tablet was changed in March and that the pharmacist mentioned something about the evening dose.

From another city, that knowledge lives in phone calls and memory. It works until the day it is needed quickly: a new clinic, a hospital admission, a locum who asks “What is she taking?” and looks at whoever is in the room.

Start with one list, kept in one place

Everything starts with a list that both of you trust. If there is none yet, make it together on the next visit, with the packs on the table. For each item: the name as printed, the strength, how much and how often, and the time of day.

Put it somewhere you can both reach: a shared note, a photo on both phones, a sheet on the fridge with a copy in your bag. The place matters less than there being only one. Two lists drift apart within a month.

If you want the method in full, the medication and supplement list guide covers it.

Agree on who keeps it

One person updates the list. Usually that is you, because you are the one it gets asked of. Say so out loud, so your parent knows to tell you when something changes rather than assuming you heard.

Ask the pharmacy to put you down as a contact if your parent agrees. Many will phone when a prescription changes or a repeat is due, and that one call does most of the work.

The weekly call: three questions

You probably speak every week anyway. Add three questions, in the same order each time, so they become routine rather than an interrogation.

1. “Anything new, stopped or changed?” Including things bought at the chemist and anything a visiting nurse or a specialist mentioned.
2. “Any days missed, or doubled?” Asked kindly, and without a sigh. Missed days are information, not a failing.
3. “Is anything running low?” A repeat that runs out on a Saturday is the most common emergency there is.

Write the answers down the same day, on the list, with the date.

The day something changes

• Update the list that day. Not after the weekend.
• Keep what was stopped, marked as stopped with the date. “What has she tried before?” is asked as often as “What is she taking?”
• Note who changed it and why, in a few words. Six months later that line is the only record of the reason.

How Sanomi does this

Sanomi gives each person you care for their own record, on your phone, kept apart from yours.

• Their own profile. Add a parent, switch to them in a tap. Nothing of theirs mixes with anything of yours.
• Their list, entered once. Type the name or scan the label. Sanomi keeps the strength, the dose, how often and the time of day, and what was stopped stays, with its dates.
• Their day, laid out, on both phones. Each item appears on their day at its time. If your parent uses a phone, they sign in with the same sign-in on theirs, open their own profile and tick what they took; you see it on yours. If not, you tick it after the call. Either way the week is there to look back on.
• A reminder on your phone, if you want one. For the evening dose you always ask about, or the repeat that runs out. Only on the items you choose.
• The list goes with them. A report written from their record, such as the preparation for a visit with its review of what they take, goes out as a PDF to whoever is seeing them next.
• Ask about their record, not yours. Ask Sanomi answers from the profile you have open, so a question about your mother is answered from your mother’s record.

Questions users ask

Last reviewed: October 2026. More on this: The people you care for · Your health record · Plan your days.

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