Assignment #2-Policy Implementation on “Elderly and disabled patients with multiple medications are at risk of medication interactions and potential drug safety concerns”.(Assignment 1 topic)

HGMT 310 Assignment #1

Student Name:

Ranti Oke

Assignment #1 Title:

Elderly and disabled patients with multiple medications are at risk of medication interactions and potential drug safety concerns.

Health Problem:

Polypharmacy is a word used to describe an adult aged more 65 years or disabled patients who use more than four drugs time in one particular time (Munger, 2010). Polypharmacy affects 40% of older adults under home care (Haider et al 2007) and 21% of adults with disability especially intellectual disability (Haider et al 2014). Multiple medications to elderly and disables patients’ leads to increased drug interaction, increased drug adverse effects on the patient and higher cost in buying the drugs. Polypharmacy is also associated with low quality of life because of more drug interactions, decreased mobility and cognition. Additionally, polypharmacy also leads to non-adherence with other drugs in older adults (Lee, 2013) since the elderly will be overwhelmed by the number of drugs he/she has to take which in turn leads to potential disease progression, treatment failure, long stays in the hospital which could be life threatening (Lee, 2013). There is considerable decrease in the functional status of patients who use multiple drugs. There is diminished ability for these patients to carry out the activities of daily living and decrease physical functioning. Polypharmacy leads to professional burden on health care worker since they have to deal with adverse effects and administer endless number of pills and medications.

Healthy People 2020:

Healthy people by 2020 is a science-based 10-year national objectives for proving health of all Americans. Healthy people 2010 recognizes the elderly people under its 42 topic it covers. Professionals, paraprofessionals, as well as paid and un-paid care givers need basic and continuing geriatric education to improve care for the older adults (Institute of Medicine, 2008). Additionally, there is need for recruitment of more health care workers to bridge the gap and for effective and quality care for the elderly and the disabled. The health care professionals also should be up to date with the latest information for effective and efficient patient and family education. Community health care professionals should also be equipped with skills on management of home based elderly people.

Official Title and Citation of the Legislation:

The US department of Health and human services releases health targets each decade. One of the goals is to ensure quality of life, healthy development and healthy behaviors across all life stages including the elderly and the disabled. Another goal which touches on the elderly is to achieve health equity, eliminate disparities and improve health of all groups. In 2010, the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) into law, strengthening and modernizing health care (Chamberlain 2001)

Describe the public policy response:

The affordable care act is providing millions of Americans with reliable, high quality medical care, while advancing programmes to hold cost in check. The benefits include insurance subsidies for consumers, transparent exchanges, increased Medicare payments for physicians. This will improve overall health care for all Americans and increased motivation for the physicians.

Status:

The legislation is in the implementation state in the health policy cycle.

Conclusion:

The health care policy does not adequately address the problem of polypharmacy but there is still room for improvement and enactment of policies to tackle the problem. Since polypharmacy impacts on the health organizations and is costly to procure and supply the list of drugs and it wears heavily of the tax payer’s money, there is need for proper policies to manage the situation. Additionally, health care professionals should also be recruited and paid a relatively higher amount of wages while the government invests heavily on drug manufacturing to meet the increased number of elderly and polypharmacy associated with it. The cost of polypharmacy is high and represent a significant economic impact both in human and financial costs.

Resources for Updates:

Frequent surveillance on the implementation process of the patient protection and affordable care act.