Missed-dose alerts for caregivers
Once you've paired with a caregiver, DoseAlert can automatically alert them when a dose is running late.
How the alert timing works
For any medication, you can set Alert caregiver after X minutes. If the scheduled time passes and you haven't marked the dose as Taken, Skipped, or Not sure within X minutes, DoseAlert sends a push alert to every paired caregiver.
Recommended timings:
- Critical meds (insulin, blood thinners, anti-seizure) — 15 to 30 minutes
- Heart/BP meds — 30 to 60 minutes
- Daily vitamins and supplements — usually not worth an alert
What the caregiver sees
The push notification reads something like:
🚨 Mom may have missed her 8:00 AM Metformin.
Tap to acknowledge.
Tapping it opens DoseAlert on the caregiver's phone and shows:
- Which patient missed the dose (based on the pairing name)
- Which medication
- The scheduled time
- An Acknowledge button
When the caregiver acknowledges, your phone gets a short "Caregiver has seen this alert" notification so you know they're in the loop.
One alert per missed dose
Each scheduled dose can trigger one caregiver alert. If you take the medication later, or skip it, no further alert fires for that dose. If the next scheduled dose is also missed, the next alert fires as normal.
Seeing the alert history
On the patient's phone, open Settings > Reminder history. Every alert that was sent to a caregiver appears in the list, labelled Caregiver alert sent. On the caregiver's phone, incoming alerts appear in the same history screen as Caregiver alert received.
Turning alerts off for a specific medication
On any medication, open its detail screen, scroll to Reminders, and clear the Alert caregiver after field. Caregivers will no longer be alerted about that medication, but they remain paired for the others.
Turning alerts off entirely (unpair)
If you want to stop all caregiver alerts, unpair the caregiver on the Family tab. See Caregiver pairing.
When the caregiver is offline
Push notifications only deliver if the caregiver's phone has internet. If they're on a plane or in a no-signal area, the alert shows up when they reconnect — but it may already be late. For that reason, DoseAlert can fall back to sending the alert as an SMS text if you provided a phone number during pairing.
Dealing with false alarms
If you took the medication but forgot to tap Taken in the app, open the Pill Tracker, tap today, find the missed dose in the Scheduled section, and tap Taken. Record the correct time you took it. The caregiver's acknowledgement already happened, so no further action is needed on either side.