The accompanying press release can be found here.
Prescribing an inappropriately high number of medications, known as polypharmacy, is a particular concern in nursing homes. An estimated 50 percent of nursing home residents receive nine or more medications, and their rate of adverse drug reactions is twice as high as that of residents taking fewer than nine. While the use of multiple medications is often appropriate in managing patients with complex chronic diseases, some medications may be unnecessary, duplicative, have limited benefit, cause a range of harmful side effects, or be inconsistent with a resident’s care goals or current practice standards.
A new United Hospital Fund report details promising results of a partnership between UHF and six nonprofit, New York-area skilled nursing homes that focused on safe “deprescribing”—decreasing the use of potentially inappropriate medications.
UHF’s Quality Institute launched a learning collaborative in 2022 with the nursing facilities to design and implement ways to better monitor and assess medication regimens and prescribing practices. The new report, Reducing the Risk: Year 1 Report of the Polypharmacy in Nursing Homes Learning Collaborative, outlines successful interventions and lessons learned in the first year of the program and highlights strategies and resources for other nursing homes to alleviate the risks and burdens of overprescribing.
The polypharmacy initiative is supported by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and TD Charitable Foundation. The report, written by UHF’s Alice Ehrlich, Joan Guzik, and Kevin Mallon, can be downloaded on this page.
