STOPIT: Deprescribing tool Supporting patient safety with effective prescribing The effective prescribing of medicines ensures that we support the safety and quality of life of our patients.
deprescribing medication. This is available via a paper form which has been provided to wards. The pilot is underway on Lister Ward and Ray Ward, with an initial rollout programme planned on all medical inpatient wards with a high population of older patients. To date, the roll out of STOPIT on Lister Ward has showed a 22.5% reduction in regular medication on patients’ prescriptions on discharge from hospital (74 medication reductions over 38 patient reviews).
With the quality improvement team, John Biddulph, chief pharmacist, Shirley Ip, lead pharmacist for frailty, and Ganesh Arunachalam, registrar in elderly care, are working to improve the way that we prescribe medicines Patients who may particularly to our patients. The medicines benefit from this include multioptimisation project is focusing on: morbidity patients (those who have two or more long-term Ensuring that our patients take health conditions), polypharmacy their medicines correctly (those who are taking multiple Ensuring that our patients medications long-term), older are involved in decision people, patients who are making housebound or care home Preventing our patients residents, patients who have from taking unnecessary a shortened life expectancy or medicines are receiving end of life care, Reducing the wastage of vulnerable patients, and those medicines with a decline in renal (kidney) Improving the safety function. practices around the prescription of medicines Additionally, please discuss any new and existing medicines on In particular, during consultations with your patients, please ensure that you carry out a review of their current medication and discuss if they feel any medicines are no longer benefiting them or are no longer suitable. We can then work to reduce dosages or remove unnecessary medications from prescriptions.
your patients’ prescriptions with them, ensuring that you check that they understand the instructions for how and when to take their medication. When your patients attend for pre-assessments or outpatient appointments, please also remind them which medicines they will need to bring with them for their outpatient procedure or inpatient stay. This links with a wider programme of work across our partner organisations in the Hertfordshire and West Essex integrated care system (ICS) and a global focus on improving medication practices as part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm. Please look out for further updates on the medicines optimisation project via this magazine, the newsletter, newsletter, In Touch magazine, the executive team briefing, and the intranet. You can also contact john.biddulph@nhs.net, shirley.ip@nhs.net, or ganesh. arunachalam@nhs.net for more information.
To enable this, we have implemented a tool called STOPIT (screening tool for older people’s inappropriate treatment) for clinicians to use when considering 15 InTouch November v1. indd.indd 15
02/12/2020 17:23