Improving medication management in aged care
This project translates aged care data into action, improving quality care through collaboration and co-design.
Project sponsor: The National Health and Medical Research Council through a partnership project grant (APP2006957)
About the project
Medication use in residential aged care is extensive, with over 80 per cent of residents taking five or more medications each day and 40 per cent taking ten or more. Poor medication management in residential aged care has been identified as a major problem, accounting for over a third of complaints made to the Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
For this project, we take a data-driven approach to improving medication safety and quality with our consortium of:
- aged care providers
- consumers
- policy advisors.
The roundtable leverages electronic medication administration systems to better understand the quality of medication management in the aged care sector and a cyclical process for identifying, trialling and testing interventions to improve safe and effective use of medicines.
Project goals
The project has three key aims:
- co-develop medication quality indicators and tailored data presentation formats for reporting to the roundtable to facilitate benchmarking and evidence-based action
- benchmark data, and co-design and test nudge interventions to improve antibiotic and antipsychotic medication use, applying stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trials
- evaluate the processes and outcomes of the roundtable and establish mechanisms for expansion and sustainability.
These aims are underpinned by a learning health systems model based on data, evidence and practice. Based on this model, the project:
- supports aged care partners in optimising medication management
- analyses and interprets data
- shares lived experiences to the roundtable members
- promotes better resident outcomes by implementing best practice interventions.
Project lead: Professor Johanna Westbrook
- Narelle Arblaster (PhD candidate)
- Dr Gaston Arnolda
- Dr Tim Badgery-Parker
- Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite
- Joanna Clive
- Sara Habibian (PhD candidate)
- Dr Guogui Huang
- Dr Mikaela Jorgensen (Adjunct Fellow)
- Professor Meredith Makeham
- Dr Isabelle Meulenbroeks
- Dr Virginia Mumford
- Sangita Neupane
- Dr Amy Nguyen
- Associate Professor Magda Raban
- Dr Karla Seaman
- Dr Joyce Siette (Honorary Research Fellow)
- Dr Sandun Malpriya Silva
- Dr Rachel Urwin
- Dr Nasir Wabe
- Yvonne Wang (MRes candidate)
- Dr Ying Xu (Honorary Research Fellow)
This project is undertaken in collaboration with our partners:
- Anglicare
- Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
- BaptistCare
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Scalabrini.