Q: What motivated you to research medications among your residents?
A:The average age for residents at the Jewish Home is 90. They come in with a lot of medications and between 15 and 20 different medical problems. This was a huge problem we wanted to improve.
Q: What were you surprised to find?
A:Our hypothesis was that, by the end of the year, the medications would be reduced. Surprisingly, we found residents were on more.
Q: What happened?
A:When we drilled down, we found a difference between our geriatricians who are taking care of patients compared to community doctors. Our group had reduced the medications generally from 20 to 15, while the community doctors caring for patients generally increased the number.
Q: Why is this?
A:We’re here full time and get to know the patients. We also get to know the nursing staff and don’t have significant turnover. Community physicians are seeing someone every other month. When the nurse calls them with a change in condition, they have to quickly come up with a solution. That means what test can I order or what medicine can I prescribe. That’s not the way we geriatricians look at the problem.
From the May 1, 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
