IHI Blog: How to Address the Harm of Medication Overload
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has published a blog, “’How to Address the Harm of Medication Overload”
“If prescribing patterns do not change in the US, older adults will experience at least 74 million adverse drug events requiring medical care and will be hospitalized nearly 5 million times in the next decade” the blog states, citing a recent Lown Institute report. “Polypharmacy, as medication overload is often called in the scientific literature, is one of the geriatric syndromes that can lead to serious adverse events, including death.”
Three aspects of the healthcare system that are driving medication overload, and a list of recommendations on how to mitigate it, are identified. The blog also references the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, whose 4Ms framework guides health systems to ensure that medications are necessary and do not interfere with what matters, mentation, or mobility.
To read the blog, click here.
To learn more about the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative, click here.
