Development of a Coordinated, Community-Based Medication Management Model for Home-Dwelling Aged in Primary Care

The demand for long-term home health care services is increasing due the demographic and societal developments. Aged people needing home care are increasingly older, have many chronic diseases and use multiple medicines and thus, are at high risk for drug-related problems (DRPs). In Finland, national and local healthcare and aged care strategies target to allowing aged people (over 65 years) living in their own homes as long as possible. This minimizes the costs of institutionalized care and also targets to add the quality of life of aged people. New approaches and service models are needed to meet these challenges.

The present study focuses on the development of a coordinated medication management model which aims to ensure the safe medication practises for home-dwelling aged in primary care. In the previous parts of this study project were developed a model for comprehensive medication review process (CMR) and a Drug-Related Problem Risk Assessment Tool. The present study uses a multistage intervention in which medications are reviewed (prescription review) in a community pharmacy using the SFINX-database to identify clinically significant drug-drug interactions and the Salko-database which identifies potentially inappropriate medications for aged people. In the next stage practical nurses use the Drug-Related Problem Risk Assessment Tool to identify potential risks. The following stages are based on the results from the risk assessment tool. Potential options are, e.g.,physician consultation, more frequent home care visits, counselling given by the community pharmacy or comprehensive medication review (CMR). The CMR process is only targeted to a limited group of study participants with clinically significant DRP who probably will benefit from more comprehensive CMR.