alderwood rest home

Alderwood Rest Home

Brenda Nicholson, Director of Resident Care

Who We Are:• 70 bed facility• We provide care to residents who require

level 1 and 2 care• 70% of admissions per year(last year)• Population served approx.150,000 primarily

rural residential elderly clients in Cape Breton

AIM Statement

• To decrease the potential for medication discrepancies to zero on admission and during transfer from hospital

Team Members• Administrator, RNs, LPNs, Pharmasist,

Physician, Dietician and Director of Care

• Crucial in making med rec successful at Alderwood was the nurse coordinator, Pharmacist and Director of Care

Change Ideas• Using multiple sources for data collection

– MARs, medical status report, sometimes pharmacy and family. Depending if the person is being admitted from home, hospital or another LTC home.

– Start BPMH before the person arrives

Change Ideas• Use BPMH to get admission orders

• Add forms to admission package

Change Idea: Combined Form

Results• At baseline we exceeded 6

discrepancies per resident admission

• The last 4 admissions had ZERO discrepancies!

Lessons Learned• Physicians & nursing staff to be on board

• Surprised at the number of discrepancies on admission

• Quickly decreased the number of discrepancies but it took 8 months to reach goal

• It is valuable to measure and use results to improve the reconciliation process

Challenges• Data entry was definitely a challenge for

us at Alderwood.• Some Physician/Nurses were and are

frustrated with the process and more so in acute care, as this is where we often see most of our potential errors.

• Prescribing physician often not family physician

Currently• Nursing staff are starting to see the

benefits of the BPMH:– it is time consuming prior to admission– preventing discrepancies/errors and rework

Next Steps• Work with DoCs to standardize routine

med protocols

• Reconcile medication on discharge

• Need to consider appropriateness of medication

Thank you!Contact Information:

Brenda Nicholson

Alderwood Rest Home

Baddeck , Nova Scotia

Email: brenda.alderwood@hotmail.com

Phone: 902 295-2644