medication care planning: the frame around the pieces of the puzzle!
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the Optimizing Medications Workshop in Vancouver by Chris Rauscher and Keith WhiteTRANSCRIPT
Community • Professional Academic
Detailing in GP offices Medication knowledge • Polypharmacy Medication review
Hospital • MedRec Best possible medication history • 48/6 Assess 6 areas w/i 48 hr • Polypharmacy Medication review
Residential Care
• MedRec Best possible medication history • CLeAR Appropriate antipsychotic use • Polypharmacy Medication review
Transition in Care
Patient
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Fervid Trimble was an active and sociable 87-year-old widowed woman, with no history of dementia.
• She resides in an independent-living apartment in a multi-care-level seniors’ complex.
• She uses a cane or walker for mobility.
• She has a stepdaughter who lives nearby and sons and daughters-in-law who live within a 2-4 hour drive.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Fervid had been on the following medications for what appears to be the associated indications:
• Hydrochlorothiazide - history of hypertension
• Warfarin - started in 1997 for atrial fibrillation
• Timolol eye drops- high intraocular pressure and risk of glaucoma
• Refocoxib (Vioxx)- for hip and leg pain (previous surgery to leg).
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
After a bout of influenza and dehydration treated at the local hospital ER she is discharged the following day to recuperate for a few days in the nursing care unit of the complex. Soon after moving in, the following med change is made:
• Tramadol (Ultram) for pain (substituted for Vioxx)
• Tylenol is added for pain
• Claritin D – sinus draining
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
She is prescribed the following additional medication for what appears to be the associated indications:
Digoxin – rapid heart beat
Nitrofurantoin (Macrobid)- urinary tract infection
She is also seen by the Geriatric Psychiatrist:
• Zoloft is prescribed for depression.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
A few weeks later, she is seen again by the visiting Geriatric Psychiatrist as she is having hallucinations and the following medication change is made:
• Citalopram (Celexa)- to replace Zoloft.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Two months later, however, Fervid has not recuperated but is increasingly delusional, somnolent, hallucinating, and she has became bedridden. She was diagnosed by the visiting psychiatrist with vascular dementia and Donepezil (Aricept) was suggested. Instead of following this course of action, the family asks for a medication review as they suspect delirium from a drug adverse event called serotonin syndrome, from the Celexa and Ultram combination, not dementia for which Fervid had no antecedent history. The physician refuses to meet and the med review only occurs 4 months later when the physician leaves the facility and a Nurse Practitioner becomes involved.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Fervid recovers cognitively after the serotonergic drugs were stopped.
However, she cannot return to the hoped-for accommodation in an assisted living suite because too much mobility and function has been lost from being bedridden so long.
Residence administrators decide that she should remain in the higher care level long-term care unit.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
In the 4 years Fervid is in the nursing care unit she has 3 hospital admissions: • One for a cranial bleed due to administering too high a dose of
Coumadin • One for a salivary gland infection (treated with antibiotics) and
dehydration • One for a stomach bleed and pneumonia (treated with
antibiotics). At the last admission, the following medications were started and continued on release: • Esomeprazole (Nexium) • Levofloxacin (Levagquin) • Diltiazem (Cardizem)
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
On return to the facility she is “mixed up, confused, upset, sometimes out of it, and sleeping a lot”, whereupon she is prescribed:
• Mirtazapine (Remeron) – for the above symptoms
• Nitrofurantoin (Macrodantin) – for a urinary tract infection
• And Warfarin (Coumadin) is restarted.
The Remeron is prescribed by a new facility physician who seems not to know Fervid’s history with anti-depressant medications.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
She begins to display serotonin syndrome symptoms, similar to what had been seen some years ago.
Medications were reviewed and she recovers cognitively when Remeron is stopped, however her physical condition remains compromised.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
It is of note that Fervid has also experienced a number of bouts of diarrhea, which further weakens her. She is diagnosed each time as having Clostridia Difficile infection for which she is prescribed:
• First: Metronidazole (Flagyl), then
• Vancomycin
She is seen by an infectious disease specialist who suggests a two week course of Vancomycin if there is another recurrence. It is also of note that there were others cases of C. Diff in that care facility where multiple transfers occur.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Fervid progressively weakens and declines and is assigned to hospice-level care after a family meeting with the doctor at the facility in the summer of 2008. She dies at the age of 92 years at the end of October 2008.
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Questions for the panel:
1. Is this an unusual clinical scenario related to medications in the elderly? Why or why not?
2. From a care planning perspective in and across the care environments and given the focus of the new medication-related initiatives, how do you think that Fervid’s situation could have been prevented?
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
• Med rec and med review opportunities at admission
• Addition of meds by more than one physician plus what is the monitoring and review approach?
• Anticholinergic Claritin D
• Hospital as a med review opportunity over and above med rec plus transitions issues
• How is resident and family involved?
• New GP
• Multiple antibiotic courses, C. Diff; ?UTI Dx;
Case Scenario: Fervid Trimble
Question for the participant discussion:
“From a care planning perspective in and across the care environments and given the focus of the new medication-related initiatives, how do you think that Fervid’s situation
could have been prevented?”