Do your residents have multiple health problems? Do they have more than one physician? More than two or three physicians?
Are you constantly needing refills or doctor visits for them? If this sounds like your personal care or assisted living community, you’re not alone. Often times, there is not enough coordination of healthcare for residents, and transition of care can be a nightmare.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough physician offices that take the time to coordinate the care of their patients. Specialists focus on their specialty, hospitals don’t take the time or don’t have the knowledge of what is required at discharge for your residents. Primary physicians won’t order medications they did not order themselves and well-meaning family members may complicate the process even more.
All of these factors can lead to delay of medications, drug interactions and duplication of medications, and frustration for the personal care and assisted living community. If your community experience these problems, here are some steps you can take to ease the frustration and assist in the coordination of the resident’s care:
- First, always send the Physician order sheet with the resident when they visit any of their physicians. Send a cover sheet or form that asks MD to review all medications, add refills and discontinue orders, and review for problems.
- Next, become familiar with the local hospital discharge personnel, and make sure you have a specific discharge policy outlined that you provide that to the hospitals. Unless there is a real emergency, do not accept residents outside of your policy guidelines. These guidelines should include written prescriptions (not just discharge orders), an approved list of medications the resident is supposed to continue with and those that should be discontinued, and a scheduled follow up with resident’s primary physician within 7- 14 days.
- Finally, have a clinical person in your community that can focus on each resident’s current physician, appointments, and orders. Keep information current, and communicate changes with pharmacy and other related care partners.
Elderly assisted living and personal care home residents often have multiple doctors, duplicate medications, and very little coordination of care. At Guardian Pharmacy Atlanta, our pharmacists and pharmacy technicians work diligently to ensure coordination of care of your residents, obtain refills, new orders, prior authorizations, and drug interaction and duplication information.
Our pharmacist and nurse consultants visit the communities, review medications and orders, help keep MAR’s up to date, and provide general and specific recommendations regarding coordination of care for your residents.
If you would like more information about Guardian Pharmacy Atlanta’s services, please call the pharmacy at 770-635-3301.