Despite their numerous other responsibilities, it’s vital that physicians avoid polypharmacy, or prescribing unnecessary or redundant medications, to improve population health and avoid errors.
Hospital-based inpatient doctors can take several steps to prevent this, according to Hospitals & Health Networks. Doctors must strike a balance between avoiding polypharmacy and preventing disruptions in the normal workflow, writes healthcare consultant Todd Kislak. To achieve this, according to Kislak, doctors and hospital leaders can:
- Incorporate polypharmacy management into the patient’s transition of care. This means putting the discharging physician in charge of reviewing medications lists.
- Refocus medications therapy management programs to factor in polypharmacy. Pharmacists should review patients’ medication lists on a line-by-line basis and provide full lists for review to both the discharging physicians’ primary care provider and the admitting doctor at any other facilities where they are transferred.
- Engage and educate patients as early as possible, including a full review of current prescriptions or any expired prescriptions still in their possession. This can be done by phone, electronically or in person with family members before a planned stay, according to the article.
- Turn polypharmacy management over to medication consultants, which can make the process more efficient by introducing doctor-to-doctor communication to the equation.
As providers work to transition to value-based care in keeping with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services incentives, polypharmacy management is vital for the broader goal of population health management, as it factors into transition of care management, a core component of the process, according to Kislak.
“Facilities that assume a proactive role in polypharmacy management with meaningful physician engagement will enjoy a competitive advantage in managing the health of their local populations,” Kislak writes. “They will profit from improved outcomes for their patients while delivering a benefit to all stakeholders across the care continuum.”