Top picks: Medication safety in social care

Summary

In 2022, the World Health Organisation’s annual World Patient Safety Day focused on medication safety, promoting safe medication practices to prevent medication errors and reducing medication-related harm.

Patient Safety Learning has pulled together some useful resources from the hub about different aspects of medication safety - here we list seven top Learn articles about medication safety in social care.

Content

1 Natural Care Forum: Medication safety in care homes

Medication safety in care homes is an ambitious cross-sector partnership project aiming to improve the medicines pathway for residents in care homes.

2 Blog - Managing medicines in care homes – four top tips

In this blog, Steve Turner, a qualified nurse specialising in clinical educational and patient engagement, offers up four tips for managing medicines in care home settings, under the following headings:

1. Care Homes must have a medicines policy that is regularly reviewed
2. People must have an accurate listing of their medicines on the day they transfer to the care home
3. People who live in care homes should have at least one multidisciplinary medication review per year
4. Ensure you have safe systems for administering and recording medicines

3 NICE/SCIE - Giving medicines covertly: A quick guide for care home managers and home care managers providing medicines support (2019)

People should not be given medicines without their knowledge if they have the mental capacity to make decisions about their treatment and care. This guide from the National Institute for Healthcare Excellence (NICE) and Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is aimed at care home managers and anyone providing medicines support in care homes. It includes information on capacity and consent, what the process is if there is a decision to give medicines covertly and what to do if you need to make a medication decision urgently.

4 Reporting medicine-related incidents in social care - Care Quality Commission

This document from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), sets out when medication errors need to be reported to the CQC within social care.

5 Medication safety in nursing home patients (5 July 2022)

Medication safety is a major issue in long-term social care due to the number of medications taken by many older people. This editorial in BMJ Quality & Safety looks at why managing medications in care homes is so complex and highlights potential interventions to improve medication safety in long-term care settings.

6 The AHSN Network: Medicine safety in care homes national report (20 March 2020)

Medication errors are a common issue within the care home sector, impacting on the health and wellbeing of residents as well as creating challenges for care home staff and managers.

This report addresses the issue of medication safety in care homes in England. Through intense engagement with a representative sample of care homes and stakeholders involving an electronic survey, workshops and conversations, Patient Safety Collaboratives have sought to understand the reasons for medication errors and how these could be avoided in the future.

7 Blog - Inappropriate prescribing during a pandemic: dementia and antipsychotics

A growing number of people with dementia who live in care homes are being prescribed antipsychotic medication, but there are serious questions about whether these drugs are being prescribed appropriately. In this blog, a family describes how their father with Alzheimer’s disease came to be prescribed antipsychotic medication at his care home. They raise concerns about the decision to prescribe antipsychotics when there were obvious non-drug based alternatives to pursue, the lack of involvement the family had in the decision-making process and the negative ways in which the medication has affected their father’s personality.

Take a look at our other medication top picks articles: Medication safety in hospitals and Patient engagement for medication safety.