This paper critically analyzes a case study on quality use of medicines, focusing on the health of Mr. T. It discusses the key issues and provides recommendations based on the Australian healthcare system. Subject: Medicine
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Quality Use of Medicines in Practice Student’s Name: Student’s ID: Subject:
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1 Introduction The primary purpose of the paper is to critically analyse the case study related to quality use of medicines. Based on the case study it will summarise the key issues that may create a negative impact on the health of Mr. T. It will discuss the importance of the principles of quality use of medicines for older Australians. Moreover, from the key issues, the paper will select two issues and provide recommendations to address the issues. The recommendations will be entirely based on the healthcare policy related to the Australian Healthcare system. The recommendations will help Mr. T to mitigate the issues efficiently and effectively. Critical analysis of the case study Mr. T is an 84-year old widower who lives at home on his own. From the case study, it can be seen that Mr. T has been suffering from hyperlipidemia, arthritis, hypertension, and heart failure. Whereas, eight and two years previously he has a history of two myocardial infarctions. On the other hand, he has been admitted in the hospital for a DVT due to an acute episode of GORD. Followed by this his daughter him to the general practice clinic. Based on this condition of Mr. T the significant issue is that Mr. T’s daughter was worried as over the last few months he had several falls and mentally he is not as sharp as he was earlier. Another issue is that Mr. T remains ambulatory with a cane where he reports of not needing assistance with his regular activities. It has been observed that Mr. T prefers drinking on Friday and Saturday night and had quit smoking ten years ago. As per his prescribed medications, it has been noticed that he has to take eight medicines daily to remain healthy and fit. While questioning Mr. T related to his medicines, he stated that he does not forget to take the doses. Whereas, the significant issue is that he finds it difficult to name as well as identify the medicines. However, he identifies the medicines by their shape and color, which may result in the inappropriate intake of medicines. He also states that due to blood pressure when he gets a headache, he takes an extra dose of metolol. From the case study, another significant issue that has been identified is Mr. T complains several times that how he feels like a pill bottle due to the intake of eight medicines per day. According to him, he did not want to spend his pension money on purchasing the pills every month.
2 It has also been observed that Mr. T comprise of a medicine box that has been brought by her niece from his kitchen, which he uses when he needs them. According, to Mr. T some of the medicines were recommended by a pharmacist, some were given to him by his neighbors as they did not need them anymore and few of the medicines were brought from the supermarket. The consumption of these medicines may be harmful to his health as he is unaware of the use of medicines. As a result, it will create a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of Mr. T. Recommendations to address the two selected issues From the case study, various issues have been analysed; out of these issues, the two selected issues are as follows: Most of the time, Mr. T complains that he feels like a pill bottle, and he did not want to spend his entire pension money in order to buy medicines. Based on this issue, it is highly recommended that Mr. T must be provided with incentives for improving the quality use of medicines by the Australian healthcare system. For the older Australians like Mr. T, who is 84 optimising quality use of medicines will help in using the strategies (Titovet al.,2015). The strategies will help Mr. T to adopt the new or existing Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) items, promoting deprescribing of medicines, and more proactive review based on quality use of medicines. The Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) will save the pension money of Mr. T that is spent on buying pills. He must implement the strategies that provide access to regular feedback and reporting to quality indicators along with non-pharmacological therapies (Hubbardet al.,2015). In order to address this particular issue, the Australian healthcare system must make efficient use of digital resources thatcanbeutilisedfornon-pharmacologicalmanagementandmedicationreview (Theuretzbacheret al.,2015). To facilitate a comprehensive medication review, the new MBS items must be formulated. These strategies will help Mr. T to utilise better the new and existing MBS items, non-pharmacological interventions, and quality use of medicines that are taken regularly. It will also minimise the usage of irrelevant polypharmacy as well as improve the quality of life and health of Mr. T. Sometimes Mr. T makes use of medicines that have been given by his neighbors, recommended by the pharmacist, and some of them were brought from the supermarket that could be harmful to him. It is strongly recommended that the Australian Health care system, such as the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) must examine the presence of compulsory heading to
3 the sanctioned Consumer Medicine and Product Information of all medicines (Westbrooket al., 2015) This will help Mr. T and other older Australians to gather relevant information regarding the use of medicine before consuming it as well as how to cease and safely withdraw the medicine. Moreover, it is also recommended that the Australian National Medicines Policy (1999) and National Strategy of Quality Use of Medicines 2002 must be updated to guide older people like Mr. T regarding the use of medicines (Scottet al.,2015). To address this issue, the national document must be updated that should lead to prioritisation and involvement in appropriatenationalprofessionalorganisationalstandardsofpracticeandjurisdictional government guidelines (Waring, Allen, Braithwaite & Sandall, 2016). Moreover, to mitigate this issue, the Australian healthcare system must review the current Australian policies. It is also recommended that there is a requirement to serve integrated and multidisciplinary patient-centered pharmaceutical care to Mr. T across the funding bodies, healthcare professionals, and public and private hospitals (Wimmeret al.,2017). In order to enhance the quality use of medicines, it is significant to develop a system map that helps in understanding the complex pathways of Mr. T and facilitates integrated patient-centered and multidisciplinary care. The older Australians like Mr. T must be provided with relevant tools and education to improve quality use of medicines. The healthcare professionals must follow the principles of quality use of medicine that includes medicines management (Qiet al.,2015). Such principles will help Mr. T to recognise the medicines and will be able to make appropriate use of them. Translation and synthesis of research into educational, tools, and guidelines opportunities to guide relevant deprescribing and prescribing in older adults with multimorbidity are required. The healthcare professional’s guidelines and tools such as the Australian Medicines Handbook must be provided that consist of current sources of medicines information (Jokanovic, Tan, Dooley, Kirkpatrick & Bell, 2015). Furthermore, the Australian Healthcare system must implement the National strategic plan to minimize inadequate polypharmacy. Systems to facilitate coordination, communication, and collaboration are needed. It is also required to create systems to maintain appropriate up to date records of medicine for older adults living in Australia (Gebelet al.,2015). On a community level, the process markers, economic outcomes, associations with patient outcomes, and high- risk medicines use is required to be monitored nationally.
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5 Conclusion The paper critically analysed the case study related to Mr. T, who is dealing with hyperlipidemia, arthritis, hypertension, and heart failure. It also summarizes the key issues related to the case study. Out of various key issues, two issues had been selected; they are, Mr. T feels stresses out of taking eight pills regularly. He states that to purchase the pills, he has to spend his entire pension money. However, it is recommended that the Australian Healthcare system must provide an incentive to Mr. T in the form of Medicine Benefits Scheme (MBI) to buy medicines without spending his pension money. Thus, it is required to formulate the MBI items to help Mr. T to utilise the new and existing MBI item better. Another issue that has been identified from the case study is that sometimes Mr. T takes medicine recommended by the pharmacist, provided by the neighbors and purchased from the supermarket. It can be seen that the consumption of such medicine is harmful as Mr. T is unaware regarding the use of these medicines. Hence, it is recommended that the Australian Healthcare system must provide information on the approved medicines for the convenience of older Australians. The Australian Healthcare system must also provide Australian Medicines Handbook to Mr. T that possess relevant information regarding medicine.
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