The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA) issued a press release on the issue of polypharmacy and the “Drive to Deprescribe” program. The goal of the program is to address the issue of polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use in our sector. Polypharmacy has and continues to be a long-standing concern as post-acute care has one of the highest rates of polypharmacy which increases the risk for adverse events and drug interactions.

The goal of “Drive to Deprescribe” is to reduce medication use by 25% while optimizing the medication regimen in long-stay residents. The program is encouraging participation from prescribers, pharmacists, DONs, CNOs, CMOs, and CEOs in the long-term care setting. So what is involved?

• Enroll your chain or facility
• Participate in monthly calls, alternating between D2D Webinars and D2D Office Hours; an opportunity for researchers and the D2D Work Group to share their strategies, discuss resources, answer questions, etc.
• Disseminate D2D resources to prescribers, pharmacists, and other key stakeholders in your facilities.
• Your pharmacy partner will share aggregated data (from all participating chains and facilities) with AMDA monthly. The Data will include key metrics to measure campaign success and identify areas of opportunity. The data shared with AMDA will not be down to the chain or facility level. We simply want to track the success of the initiative as a whole by identifying areas of opportunity and areas of success.

Is it time to shift gears and get back to basics? When was the last time you reviewed your monthly pharmacy report and/or pharmacist recommendations? Might be a great project to get your nurse managers involved with! Click the link above, register your community and don’t forget to include your medical director in the process.

Stay well and stay tuned!