Impact of a geriatric nursing home palliative care service on unnecessary medication prescribing
July 27th, 2009 Posted by: admin
Publication year: 2009
Source: The American Journal of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy, Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2009, Pages 20-25
Erin M., Suhrie , Joseph T., Hanlon , Emily J., Jaffe , Mary Ann, Sevick , Christine M., Ruby , …
Background: There is a lack of studies concerning improvement of medication use in palliative care patients in nursing homes.Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate whether a geriatric palliative care team reduced unnecessary medication prescribing for elderly veterans residing in a nursing home.Methods: This was a retrospective, descriptive study of patients who died while residing in a geriatric palliative care unit between August 1, 2005, and July 31, 2007. Prescribed medications were evaluated using the Unnecessary Drug Use Measure, which contains 3 items from the Medication Appropriateness Index concerning lack of indication, lack of effectiveness, and therapeutic duplication. This measure…
