UniSA research project to boost medication safety
A research project involving a trial of medication safety rounds in six aged care homes aims to develop a new care model focused on reducing medication-induced harm.
After receiving close to $1 million from the Medical Research Future Fund, a new study by the University of South Australia will trial medication safety rounds in aged care homes with the intention of preventing medication-induced harm and improving resident care.
It is one of five Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission Grants awarded by the MRFF this round.
The study involves pharmacists, nurses and personal care workers and equipping them with the tools to identify medication issues early and develop safe action plans for residents.
Medication mismanagement is the most frequent reason for residential care complaints to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and UniSA’s chief investigator Associate Professor Janet Sluggett said the new medication safety rounds would lead to improvements in medication use, health and wellbeing among residents.
“Our project will co-design and establish an evidence-base for medication safety needs rounds in aged care homes,” Dr Sluggett told Australian Ageing Agenda.
“It will generate new evidence about effective approaches to support medicines to be used safely and effectively for older people living in aged care homes.”
“Ensuring medications are used in the best-possible way will ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of residents, who take an average of 10 different medicines daily,” she told AAA.
“Medication safety needs rounds will also meet the needs of the frontline staff caring for residents, through capacity-building for care workers and nurses.”
“Now, as a result of the Royal Commission in Aged Care Quality and Safety, pharmacists are working onsite in aged care homes to help address this issue, but we need to provide them with new tools to proactively address medication safety issues,” she said.
The medication safety rounds draw upon evidence-based principles of nurse-led palliative care needs rounds, Dr Sluggett said, where patients are regularly monitored by a multidisciplinary team of experts to assess and cater for their needs.
“Needs rounds typically involve a monthly cycle of identifying residents with the most pressing care needs and conducting a triage meeting to discuss needs and develop action plans, which can then trigger clinical activities, staff education, and/or multidisciplinary meetings,” Dr Sluggett explained to AAA.
“We will adapt this approach to provide a new pharmacist-led multidisciplinary model targeting medication safety needs in aged care homes.”
The project team will work with aged care staff, health professionals, residents, and families to adapt the existing palliative care need rounds model. Together, they will codesign a toolkit that includes a needs rounds checklist, an implementation guide, and a staff training package – to guide the medication safety needs rounds process.
The project will involve six aged care homes and go for two years.
Australia is one of the first countries to implement onsite pharmacists in aged care homes and the new, pharmacist-led medication safety rounds initiative aims to deliver a robust mechanism to address medication safety needs in aged care homes.
“Working with our partners in aged care homes, we will implement and evaluate the processes and outcomes of medication safety needs rounds and conduct an intervention scalability assessment to inform future testing or scale up,” Dr Sluggett said.
“With Australia’s aged care system undergoing major reforms, including the introduction of onsite pharmacists, this project leverages a critical window of opportunity to develop a new care model focused on reducing medication-induced harm and improving resident’s health and wellbeing.”
The project follows recent announcements about Churches of Christ Queensland partnering with Choice Aged Care to embed a clinical pharmacist in its community care operations, and North Queensland Public Health Network and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia launching the Older Persons Medication Management pilot project.
Comment on the story below. Follow Australian Ageing Agenda on LinkedIn and Facebook, sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter and subscribe to AAA magazine for the complete aged care picture.
