For the second year, the United Hospital Fund’s partnership with nursing homes was successful in deprescribing unnecessary medications when appropriate, a new report shows.
The report detailed how seven participating nursing homes reduced the average number of medications per resident by 8%. The program decreased the percentage of residents on 10 or more medications from 46% to 40%.
Polypharmacy is when people are prescribed an inappropriately high number of medications. It’s known to raise the chances for adverse events including drug interactions. About 50% 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, UHF reported.
The UHF Quality Institute first launched the program in 2022.
For the latest data, the team expanded the list of medications targeted for deprescribing. Nursing homes participating in the program focused their deprescribing efforts on their choice of two or three medications out of a list of 12.
Medications on the list included proton pump inhibitors, antihypertensives, benzodiazepines, opioids, muscle relaxers, antihistamines, and mood stabilizers. Across the seven long-term care centers that participated, the use of all but one of the targeted medications was reduced during the intervention. Notably, antihistamines were reduced by 68%, antidepressants by 62% and opioids by 53%.
After deprescribing, residents were more attentive and comfortable, less agitated, showed better comprehension, and improved appetites, according to family members.
“With another year of promising success, our polypharmacy initiative has shown that systematically addressing medication overload in nursing homes can result in a marked decrease in the use of high-risk medications and can improve residents’ quality of life,” Joan Guzik, director of quality and efficiency at UHF’s Quality Institute and one of the authors of the report, said in a statement.
Eger Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, Gurwin Jewish Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Hebrew Home at Riverdale, Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home, Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home, The New Jewish Home, and Manhattan NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur were participating long-term care centers.
