Kane Scott Township, one of the four Kane skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities located in Allegheny County, has been recognized by Quality Insights of Pennsylvania for results in a pilot study aimed at reducing the use of antipsychotic drugs within the dementia population. The center is the location of Kane’s new 45 bed Memory Care Unit.
The initiative is called the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC) and integrates a pharmacist’s expertise into an interdisciplinary team. The team focuses on improving health outcomes and safety for high medication risk populations through patient centered, cost-effective medication management services. Those services are aligned with national quality standards.
Kristen Ziegler, Director of Quality Assurance at RX Partners, was selected to lead the project and the team. With the help of Maribeth Walsh, Manager of Social Services at Kane Scott, an interdisciplinary team was selected. Staff members held peer to peer conferences that focused on specific behaviors that might be addressed without the use of antipsychotic drugs.
“Nursing assistants, nurses, recreational therapists and others involved in patient care sat down and talked about different interventions that may be useful,” said Walsh. “We started asking ourselves what might be missing, and used that conversation to provide us with direction.”
An integral part of the team was Dr. Ismael Mohamet a Board Certified Geriatric Psychiatrist from UPMC’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. “Dr. Mohamet scheduled hours at Kane Scott on Saturdays treating residents and working with staff and families,” explains Walsh. “His work helped to pull the different pieces together.”
The data confirms that this effort is yielding success. While Kane Scott’s pilot project began in October 2013, it is still in full swing. In January 2013, the antipsychotic medication rate was 70% in the selected residents. As of March 2014, that rate dropped to 45%
“Chris Bernes from Quality Insights of Pennsylvania has been a strong partner throughout this process,” said Ziegler. “She meets with the team monthly to review the data and help to measure what we are doing and we have affected outcomes. It’s important for the various departments to continue to work together to resolve these issues. Everyone must participate so that we may sustain these reductions.”
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