Auditor says seniors in long-term care need better management of medication
Findings in Heartland health region cause for 'significant concern' says latest report
Saskatchewan's auditor is raising concerns about the management of medication for residents in long-term care homes.
One chapter of the latest auditor's report, tabled today in the provincial Legislature, looked at long-term care in the Heartland regional health authority in west central Saskatchewan.
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In a sample of residents in that region, every single one of them had received one or more potentially inappropriate medications and two-thirds of residents were on three or more inappropriate medications.
"Those are medications that have a higher risk of an adverse effect on a senior," says Acting Provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson. "They're also medications that there is alternate medications available that could be prescribed that has a lower risk."
Ferguson says the consequences of that might cause other issues. "The side effects are things like dizziness...maybe instability, that type of thing, so that they may be at a higher risk of falling."
The auditor says health regions need a strategy for the use of medication in long-term care and they need to communicate that approach to families and other health care providers.