The accompanying press release can be found here.
Polypharmacy, also known as medication overload, refers to the prescribing of an inappropriately high number of medications and has become increasingly recognized as a health risk to older adults. It is known to increase the likelihood of adverse events, and the risk of drug-drug interactions and side effects has been shown to grow as the number of medications an individual takes increases.
Recognizing this growing problem, UHF’s Quality Institute first launched The Polypharmacy in Nursing Homes Learning Collaborative in 2022. Focusing on safe “deprescribing”—decreasing the use of potentially inappropriate medications—the partnership has successfully reduced the average number of medications prescribed to each resident for the second year.
A new report describes the promising results from the initiative’s second year and includes recommendations and tools for other long-term care facilities interested in starting a deprescribing project. Plus, participating facilities shared anecdotes of the collaborative’s impact on residents, caregivers, and nursing home staff.
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. A report on first-year results can also be found on this page under "Related Publicatons."
