For patients in skilled nursing or other residential settings with diabetes, administering insulin is a common responsibility of a facility’s nursing staff. Insulin is a critical treatment for these patients, so it’s important that nursing teams stay up to speed on best practices for the insulin injection process – from choosing the best injection site to their care after administration.
Skilled Nursing Facility pharmacy solutions. As science discovers more about how the human body functions and metabolizes medications, the potential to personally optimize medications for residents increases. The topic of pharmacogenetics is increasing in popularity as we progress toward personalized medicine. We have learned a significant amount about how an Read more…
Rising medication costs are a significant concern nationwide and in skilled nursing. Today, prescription drug expenditures account for nearly 20 percent of healthcare costs, and prescription spending is growing faster than any other part of health care. Consider these facts: American spending on prescription drugs increased 13.1 percent in 2014—the Read more…
Food, liquids, and medications are absorbed, distributed throughout the body, metabolized, and then eliminated. This is accomplished through a complex and complicated process involving a host of your body’s enzymes. Obviously, knowing how slow or how quickly a medication is metabolized and eliminated from the body is crucial when prescribing Read more…
According to the Institute of Safe Medication Practices, approximately 7,000 deaths occur every year in the United States due to medication errors that could have been prevented. And medication errors are just as possible among the PACE population as in a standard healthcare setting. The ultimate goal of PACE, including PACE Read more…
Care transitions are one of the times when a resident’s risk of potential medication errors significantly increase. An estimated 80 percent of medical errors occur during the transition between medical providers. Of those errors, 40 percent involve medications, and 20 percent result in harm to the resident. The challenges to Read more…
Many PACE participants have multiple disease states that require numerous medications. This leads to complex medication regimens consisting of multiple medications—what we in the industry refer to as polypharmacy. Without oversight, polypharmacy in seniors can be a significant problem. Taking multiple medications at one time increases the risk for adverse Read more…
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced the Final Rule, a set of new regulations that significantly impact LTC pharmacy services. The most taxing phase of the Final Rule, Phase 2, went into effect in November 2017. While Phase 1 introduced a number of important medication-related Read more…
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which develops when stomach acid frequently flows back into the esophagus, is common in long-term care residents. Similar to other conditions, older adults are at a higher risk of complications from chronic GERD, making it important for long-term care providers—including LTC pharmacy services—to stay up to Read more…
When it comes to the medication needs of those in the PACE environment, there are unique challenges to consider. A new study has determined that the number of older Americans who take three or more medications that affect their brains has more than doubled in just a decade. The sharpest Read more…