Skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute care places have special problems with medication management. Patients often come from hospitals using many different medicines. It is very important to check and update the medication list at every step of care to keep patients safe. But this process takes a lot of work and mistakes can happen easily.
Nurses in skilled nursing facilities often have too much work and not enough help. This makes it hard to follow the growing rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). James Duke, PharmD, Vice President of Clinical Pharmacist Services at ActualMeds, says that nurses are “already stretched far too thin.” Because of these problems, medication mistakes, delays in checking medicines, and harmful drug events can happen.
Before new technology was used, checking medications meant typing data by hand and copying from paper or systems that did not work together. This caused more errors. Also, nurses spent a lot of time on paperwork instead of helping patients.
New technology tools help post-acute care places meet rules, lower mistakes, and improve patient safety. Companies like ActualMeds develop systems such as the InConcert platform to keep a complete, checked medication list for a patient while they stay.
Starting October 1, 2023, CMS made new coding rules for Medicare payments. ActualMeds made a medication checking tool for long-term care settings to help skilled nursing facilities follow these rules. The InConcert platform collects medicine data from places like pharmacies and electronic health records. This gives doctors and nurses a full view of all medicines a patient has taken from admission to discharge.
This system lowers manual typing mistakes and helps keep medicine records correct. It updates in real-time so nursing staff spend less time fixing complex medicine lists by hand.
ActualMeds also uses expert pharmacists to review medicine orders. They make clear medicine lists for patients and caregivers that show what to continue, stop, or start. This helps patients take their medicines properly after leaving care and lowers the chance of going back to the hospital.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have changed healthcare in the United States by storing patient data all in one place. In post-acute care, EHRs give quick access to medicine records, lab results, and doctor’s orders. This helps keep patients safe when taking medicines.
The American Nurses Association says EHRs reduce medicine mistakes by making documentation clear and improving communication among health workers. When combined with Electronic Medication Management Systems (EMMS), mistakes caused by messy handwriting or wrong dosages happen less. EMMS help with prescribing, giving out, and giving medicines on time and correctly.
Besides EHRs and checking systems, other technologies help keep medication safe in post-acute care places.
ADCs are electronic machines that store and give out medication safely at the patient’s bedside. They help by tracking medicine stock and controlling who can get the medicines. Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA) uses barcode scanning to check the patient’s ID and the medicine before giving it. This lowers the chance of mistakes.
A review of these tools shows BCMA helps reduce medication errors. But some problems remain, like barcodes that can’t be read or nurses overriding checks by mistake. These show that ongoing checking is needed even with technology.
Robots are starting to help nurses by doing repeated or hard tasks like delivering medicine or supplies. They are more common in hospitals but some test programs in post-acute care show they might help reduce nurse tiredness and let nurses focus more on patients.
The COVID-19 pandemic made telehealth more common. Telehealth lets patients and doctors meet online for medicine reviews and checkups. This helps patients who have trouble moving or live far away in rural areas.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says people in remote U.S. regions have higher rates of early death from heart disease and stroke. Telehealth helps by giving these people access to doctors and medicine advice outside of normal care places.
Computer programs using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are becoming important for medication management in post-acute care. These systems can look through large amounts of patient data like medication history, lab results, and doctor notes to find possible medicine problems or risks.
AI tools help by automatically checking and combining medication lists from different data sources to make a correct list. These tools can find differences and flag those that need doctors’ attention. They also create reports for health teams.
For example, ActualMeds’ platform uses AI to do much of the data checking work that used to be done by hand. This helps nurses spend more time caring for patients instead of doing paperwork. AI also helps pharmacists check medicine lists faster.
Coding and billing rules from CMS mean exact documents about medication care are needed. AI can make required reports and alerts automatically. This helps care places meet rules without adding more work for nurses.
This automation lowers the risk of losing money from penalties and makes payment processes smoother. It also lets leaders and IT managers watch medication quality in real-time and fix problems faster.
Automation handles regular tasks like updating medicine stock, sending appointment reminders, and helping team communication. This makes work easier and faster.
Nurses say technology like this cuts down paperwork and helps reduce burnout. They can spend more time talking with patients. James Duke, PharmD, said that ActualMeds’ solutions support staff without needing to hire more people.
Compliance with CMS Regulations: Automated medicine checking helps meet strict Medicare rules started in October 2023. This protects payment money and reduces audit risks.
Improved Patient Outcomes: Correct medication use cuts medicine mistakes, bad drug events, and hospital returns. This improves care quality ratings and patient satisfaction.
Optimized Staffing Resources: Technology helps nurses who are already very busy. It supports better use of staff without hiring more workers.
Reduced Operational Costs: Automation cuts manual work that is slow and full of mistakes. This lowers the costs of care management.
Data Integration and Analytics: Centralized data help leaders make better decisions and IT managers to target improvements based on performance.
Enhanced Communication: Tools that enable real-time messaging and clear documentation make teamwork easier between pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and others on the care team.
IT managers need to put in strong systems that work well with current EHRs and pharmacy systems. It is important to keep patient data safe and follow HIPAA privacy laws during these changes.
Post-acute care places in the United States have challenges with medication management. These include not enough staff, lots of rules, and risk of mistakes when patients move between care levels. Technology tools like ActualMeds’ InConcert system, EHRs, automated dispensing, barcode scanning, telehealth, and AI automation help with these problems.
Using these technologies helps skilled nursing facilities and long-term care places keep medicine lists accurate, improve patient safety, reduce paper work, and follow rules. Administrators, owners, and IT managers can improve how their places work, help patients more, and keep finances steady.
As post-acute care continues to change, technology use will be very important. Care places need to keep investing in and improving these tools to meet future needs.
ActualMeds’ new solution is designed to help skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) comply with updated coding requirements from CMS that affect reimbursement, ensuring high-quality care and optimizing PDPM payments.
The InConcert platform provides a complete view of a patient’s validated medications, using historical drug data and new EHR orders to facilitate accurate medication reconciliation and safe patient discharges.
SNFs face challenges including stretched nursing resources, difficulties in training staff on new processes, and ensuring compliance with stringent CMS requirements, all while delivering quality care.
Integrating with the pharmacy and EHR systems minimizes manual data entry and transcription errors, ensuring that medication information is accurately updated and reconciled.
ActualMeds’ pharmacists create reconciled medication lists, review current orders, and collaborate with care teams to provide compliant discharge medication lists that enhance care continuity.
The solution relieves nursing staff from the burden of adapting to compliance requirements, allowing them to focus on patient care without the need to hire additional personnel.
Accurate discharge medication lists ensure that primary care physicians understand medication changes and provide clear instructions to patients and caregivers about ongoing medication management.
ActualMeds reports improved patient outcomes, higher satisfaction scores, reduced care management expenses, and overall lower costs of care due to their technology-enabled medication management.
The launch precedes important CMS updates effective October 1, 2023, at a time when SNFs are already understaffed and require immediate support for compliance.
ActualMeds aims to streamline medication management processes, enhance patient safety, ensure adherence, and reduce the risk of medication errors across post-acute care settings.
Simbo is using AI agents to automate all phone related workflows. Connect now to know more.
Schedule AI Agents Demo Now© Since 2019, Simbo AI.
