National Quality Measures

Prescribed medication is on the rise in the United States. Particularly among the elderly as they are more inclined to be taking medications. According to the textbook, about thirty percent of people who are sixty-five or older take eight or more prescriptions daily. (Snyder, 62) With that comes an increase in medication misuse and abuse. The difference between the two has to do with the intentions or motivations the person has. Medication misuse is an unintentional or willful use of a medication in a way that differs from prescribed dose or intent. (Snyder, 61) The first example found in the textbook includes taking several unused antibiotics for strep throat from last years prescription, thinking the sore throat is strep throat. The second example is a person who takes a double dose of Tylenol, thinking the higher dose will clear the symptoms faster. The last example from the book is failing to take entire course of antibiotics prescribed for them. (Snyder, 61) On the other hand, medication abuse is deliberately taking a drug for non-medical reason. For example, taking a prescription medicine that was prescribed to someone else, taking the medicine in a different form such as snorting it, or taking a certain medicine with the intent to get high. Both medication abuse and misuse in the elderly population is of concern on the grounds that it can bring mental and physical debilitation. Older people misusing or abusing medications puts them at greater danger and may lead to

Polypharmacy among the elderly is a growing concern in U.S. healthcare system. Patients who have comorbities and take multiple medications are at a higher risk for potential adverse drug reactions. There is a great need for nursing interventions in conducting a patient medication review also known as “brown bag”. As nurses obtain history data from patients at a provider visit, the nurse should ask “what medications are you taking?” and the answer needs to include over-the-counter medications as well. If the response does not include any medications other than prescribed meds, it is incumbent upon the nursing professionals to question the patient further to ensure that no over-the-counter medications or supplements are

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methods used by a local health care facility, Southwest General Hospital, to evaluate and monitor healthcare quality data. Quality measurement in health care is the process of using data to evaluate the performance of health care providers against recognized quality standards (FamiliesUSA, 2014). The measuring of quality plays a vital role in the creating, maintaining, and managing of the data that this healthcare facility aims in focusing on quality of health care.

Tissot E, Cornette C, Limat S, et al. Observational study of potential risk factors of medication

Prescription medication use is widespread, complex, and increasingly risky. Clinicians have access to an armamentarium of more than 10,000 prescription medications, and nearly one-third of adults in the United States take 5 or more medications. Advances in clinical therapeutics have undoubtedly resulted in major improvements in health for patients with many diseases, but these benefits have also been accompanied by increased risks. An adverse drug event (ADE) is defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication, and ADEs account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits and 100,000 hospitalizations each year. ADEs affect nearly 5% of hospitalized patients, making them one of the most common types of inpatient errors; ambulatory patients may experience ADEs at even higher rates. Transitions in care are also a well-documented source of preventable harm

In today’s classrooms, schools and educational settings, teachers and educators are overloaded with the responsibility to produce data, analyse students learning and development and assess this against the National Quality Framework outcomes, the Australian curriculum and State Curriculum and Standards. With this high demand each day, teachers and educators need to find a way to best utilise their time with their students’ and use strategies and learning approaches to get the most out of the learning experiences. By integrating an inquiry approach into a classroom, teachers and educators are providing students with a well-rounded approach to learning. Murdoch (2015) describes an inquiry approach as ‘an approach that places the learner

Because of the aging process, multiple medications that are taking can be harmful to their bodies. It is not uncommon “for a client with multiple medical conditions to be on 6-9 medications” (Carroll, C., & Hassanin, A., 2017). If they are to become hospitalized it is possible that during their stay, they are prescribed new medications for an existing condition. These new medications can put an elderly client at risk for polypharmacy. The client may become overwhelmed and confused, and may add their new medication to their existing pill regimen and take both old and new. There may also be a situation where the elderly client has multiple physician appointments and they are all prescribing medications which can lead to “inadequate or lack of health counseling on pharmacological management” (Carroll, C., & Hassanin, A.,

According to the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA), on July 1, 1999, established a quality indicator that residents taking nine or more medications will be used to identify long-term facilities where medications potentially are overused and residents may be at increased risk for adverse drug reactions (ADR). However, this approach can be controversial because the medication is essential for older people health safety. There are many factors on the overuse of medication which can include age, health and the number health care visits. Especially on home care and long-term facilities, most of the elderly in this facilities are forced to take these medications due to facility policies (Hanlon, 2001). Another

Polypharmacy is the use of many different drugs concurrently in treating patient who often has several health problems. The growing geriatric population consumes the largest proportion of all medication than of other population groups. In Canada alone, one in three older adults takes more than 8 different drugs each day, and some take as many as 15 or more (Lilley, 2011). Polypharmacy can lead to what is known as the “prescribing cascade”, in which older adults develop adverse effects from one or more of the medications taken and the health care provider then prescribe another drug. The risk for drug interactions, adverse effects, and hospitalization is far greater in this situation. Acknowledging polypharmacy in a patients and

The majority of seniors over the age of 65 take multiple medications. In fact, the average senior takes between 8 and13 medications every day. According to the National Institute for Health, over 50 percent of seniors do not take their medication as prescribed. Adding to problems with medication, the tiny print on bottles and data sheets makes it hard for seniors with deteriorating eyesight to read. Cognitive issues and memory problems further complicate issues. As a result, mistakes with medication are one of the top reasons seniors end up in the emergency room and they are the primary reason seniors are readmitted to the hospital after a discharge.

Are any of you are aware of the terminology of any medication taken or do you all simply take the medication because it was prescribed by a doctor? it is undeniable that drugs do save lives, but few prescription medications are completely free of risks or side effects. Naturally, the more drugs that are taken at the same time, the greater the risk of adverse interactions and potentially devastating side effects. This problem of “overmedication” is increasing to almost epidemic proportions among the elderly. For example, a recent Washington Post article that described an 83-year-old grandmother who wished to remain anonymous. The woman had been hospitalized for an asthma attack. In the hospital, she was prescribed

A list of all of the prescribed medications and over the counter medications that the patient is currently taking needs to be wrote out. Included in the list needs to be the route, side effects, when to take the medication, who prescribed the medication, and why they are taking the medication. Patient education is important for patients who are taking multiple medications. It is important for them to understand what the medication is doing for them, how and when to take it, and the possible side effects to be looking for. There have been a few systems or tools to help in the prevention of polypharmacy. The Beers Criteria, Screening Tool of Older Persons Potentially inappropriate Prescriptions (STOPP), and Screening Tool to Alert doctors to the Right Treatments (START) are all used in hospitals today (Alpert and Gatlin, 2015, page 6). However the Assess, Review, Minimize, Optimize, and Reassess tool was developed more recently to help consolidate recommendations in a tool that is easily implemented to address polypharmacy (Alpert and Gatlin, 2015, page 6). Nurses and other healthcare providers are encouraged to use these tools in a proactive way to help prevent the effects of polypharmacy in the elderly population. As healthcare providers it is our responsibility to help improve the quality of life and ensure that we are doing

Accordingly, it was noted the repercussion of taking countless drug medications could result to multiple outpatient/ urgent care visits or hospitalization. A systematic review by Hamid, Ghaleb, Aljadhey, and Aslanpour (2013) identified “old age and polypharmacy” as risk factors to hospital admission caused by ADR’s and /or adverse drug events. It was attributed to people who are elderly and

Data quality standards are essential in health care information systems to ensure that the information provided to the end user is relevant and useful. In health care, where decisions can literally mean life or death, it is important that clinicians have accurate and quality data. Without strict standards in place, data used to make health care decisions becomes unreliable, potentially untrustworthy, and ultimately will have very little value in the decision-making process.

Preventive and corrective actions are very similar concepts in a quality control system, as both are geared towards ensuring that flaws or deviations from standard products are fixed such that the company does not pass lesser quality products to consumers or spent unnecessary sums in fixing problems after the fact (Quality Progress, 2012). There is an essential difference between preventive and corrective action, however; the former refers to proactive actions that take place before problems are encountered actions that prevent flaws/deviations/etc. while corrective actions are taken after the afct to ensure that an observed error in a system is not repeated and that the fewest possible amount of output is affected by the system error these actions correct problems that lead to flaws/deviations/etc (Quality Progress, 2012). Though this might not appear an especially significant difference at first glance, it can have profound impact on quality control systems and perspectives, and is very important to take note of (Quality Progress, 2012).