Quality use of medicines in aged care facilities: A need for new models of care

Abstract

What is known and objective: Despite all the advancement in aged care, medication adverse events are still reported to occur frequently in aged care residents and to be a major contributor to hospitalization and reduced quality of life in older adults. Thus, there is an urgent need for interventions and developing new models of care to address medication safety.

Comment: Interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as accessibility to health professionals, is amongst the factors affecting medication safety in aged care. Increasing access to pharmacists and forming an interdisciplinary team with doctors and nursing staff may improve medication safety in aged care facilities.

What is new and conclusion: To address the medication safety, we suggest a novel model of care in residential aged care facilities, in which an on-site pharmacist integrates with nursing staff to form an interdisciplinary team to prevent medication-related harm and improves the quality use of medicines.

Keywords: aged care; drug adverse events; medication management; pharmacist.