Prescribing-Assessment Tools for Long-Term Care Pharmacy Practice: Reaching Consensus through a Modified RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method

• Main Author: Gonçalves, J.
• Publication Date: 2021
• Other Authors: Sleath, B., Lopes, M., Cavaco, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/34026; https://doi.org/Gonçalves, J.R.; Sleath, B.L.; Lopes, M.J.; Cavaco, A.M. Prescribing-Assessment Tools for Long-Term Care Pharmacy Practice: Reaching Consensus through a Modified RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method. Pharmacy 2021, 9, 194. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9040194; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9040194
• topic: long-term care; potentially inappropriate prescribin

Medicines are the most used health technology in Long-Term Care. The prevalence of potentially inappropriate medicines amongst Long-Term Care patients is high. Pharmacists, assisted by prescribing-assessment tools, can play an important role in optimizing medication use at this level of care. Through a modified RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, 13 long-term care and hospital pharmacists assessed as ‘appropriate’, ‘uncertain’, or ‘inappropriate’ a collection of commonly used prescribing-assessment tools as to its suitability in assisting pharmacy practice in institutional long-term care settings. A qualitative analysis of written or transcribed comments of participants was pursued to identify relevant characteristics of prescribing-assessment tools and potential hinders in their use. From 24 different tools, pharmacists classified 9 as ‘appropriate’ for pharmacy practice targeted to long-term care patients, while 3 were classified as ‘inappropriate’. The tools feature most appreciated by study participants was the indication of alternatives to potentially inappropriate medication. Lack of time and/or pharmacists and limited access to clinical information seems to be the most relevant hinders for prescribing-assessment tools used in daily practice.