Catholic Health East
Best Practice Narrative
RHC: Mercy Medical - Daphne, AL |
Category:
Operations & Benchmarking
Contact: Sr. Mary Ann Wilhelm, RSM
Telephone: (334)621-4224 |
Description of the Best Practice
POLYPHARMACY RISK IN GERIATRIC SETTINGS
Implementation
Patients who frequently have multiple medications (10 to 13) are best served by the simplest of drug regimens. Since a Mercy Medical pharmacist reviews a patient’s drug regimen on a regular basis, the opportunities for addition of new drug orders without discontinuation of no-longer-needed medications is eliminated. The drug regimen review provides an excellent mechanism to maintain drug regimens in the simplest forms. Duplicative drug therapies, interacting drugs, unused and unnecessary drugs, as well as drug dosages that need adjusting, can be dealt with by the pharmacist during the drug regimen review. By communicating to the physician the problems or opportunities found during a drug regimen review, polypharmacy problems can be controlled.
Time Frame
Financial Profile
Outcome
Supporting Data
Best Practice Narrative is limited to a one page summary.
Supporting data is limited to one page.
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