Many medication management tools are designed to help aid older adults, including those with cognitive impairment. But such tools also can be a big benefit to their caregivers as well.
Using an automatic medication dispensing cabinet at two long-term care facilities was able to cut down medication prep and retrieval time by more than half, and a majority of nurses favored the medbox solution, according to a new study.
Although the study evaluated a specific technology — a medical cabinet developed by Becton, Dickinson and Co. — the findings would appear applicable to any tool that involves tech or automation to aid any manual medication administration within long-term care facilities.
The automated cabinet was particularly useful in delivering emergency or unscheduled medication dosages to residents, the study found. The retrieval time for emergency medicine was cut by 71%, the researchers said, noting that significant cost savings were realized as well.
“Minutes matter when it comes to getting the right medication to the right patient at the right time,” Idal Beer, MD, and vice president of medical affairs for medication management solutions at BD, said in a statement. “This is especially true in long-term care settings, where patients have increasingly complex needs and nursing staff are managing high patient-to-provider ratios. The results of this landmark study make a clear case for the power of automation to enhance patient care and alleviate labor challenges.”
The need for tools that can improve med management is quite real, experts point out. Two out of five older adults take at least five prescription pills a day, according to the AARP.
Although technology to assist in med management isn’t new, many developers are incorporating recent innovations such as “smart” systems and artificial intelligence to help ensure that older adults are taking their medications correctly.
The recently released Prompter Connected Pillbox, for example, uses sensors to monitor and alert when the box was opened and which pills were removed. Another tool that helps caregivers more efficiently deploy meds is FeelBetter’s AI system, Pharmaco-Clinical Intelligence, which is able to accurately identify the risk of adverse medication interactions in certain people.
