The Portsmouth Enhanced Care Home Team Pilot is a service developed collaboratively with Solent NHS Trust (Solent), Portsmouth Primary Care Alliance (PPCA), Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group (PCCG) and Portsmouth City Council (PCC). The pilot service is provided jointly by Solent and PPCA and PCCG Medicines Optimisation Team.
The projects primary aims are to improve care home resident outcomes by reducing harm from medicines and supporting care home staff to reduce inappropriate urgent care calls and subsequent admissions.
By having an MDT approach in care homes, the team is well placed to ensure residents receive care from the most appropriate healthcare professional in a timely and efficient manner.
We have seen some encouraging outcomes from the work of the Enhanced Care Homes Team, including reduction in ambulance calls, A&E attendances and GP practice visits and calls.
Each resident reviewed as part of the MDT has a full clinical medication review, from the recommendations the Medicines Optimisation Team have made, 84% were actioned by the prescriber, including stopping a number of medications that were no longer appropriate for that resident; this resulted in a total of 8% of prescribed medications being stopped in the residents reviewed. Although not the primary aim of the service the estimated saving from medication interventions was £150 per resident per year in 18/19, excluding admission avoidance.
