When residents veer off their prescribed treatment plans, medication regimens, and lifestyle adjustments, the consequences can be dire. Every year in the United States, an estimated 125,000 lives are lost due to medication nonadherence.
As our population ages and healthcare demands grow more complex, long-term care communities shoulder the burden of ensuring every resident follows their treatment plan. Their residents’ well-being and outcomes depend on it.
This responsibility may pose a formidable challenge for community managers and owners, but it’s not impossible. They just need the right technology.
Long-Term Care in 2024: Major Medication Adherence Challenges
Maintaining resident medication adherence is crucial for ensuring optimal health and preventing complications. Unfortunately, hospitals, skilled nursing, and assisted living communities currently face significant resident compliance challenges:
Staffing Shortage
According to the 2024 State of the Nursing Home Sector, 94% of nursing community providers struggle to recruit new staff, and 72% have fewer employees than before the pandemic.
Because of the prolonged staffing shortage, long-term care providers have made drastic adjustments to their operations, such as:
- Asking current staff to work longer hours or extra shifts
- Limiting new resident admissions
- Hiring temporary staff
- Closing a unit, wing, or floor
When you're understaffed, your team members face increased workloads and time constraints, leading to rushed or incomplete medication rounds.
Read More: How to Keep Your Care Home Afloat During a Staffing Shortage
Acuity Creep
Long-term care communities address the needs of the aging demographic, so caring for residents with complex medical needs is second nature to them. However, the healthcare industry has noticed steadily increasing acuity levels among skilled nursing and long-term care residents in the past decade.
This acuity creep refers to the phenomenon where the necessary level of care for residents gradually increases over time, often without corresponding adjustments in staffing or resources. The heightened complexity of medical needs and medication regimens can overwhelm both the residents and their caregivers, making it difficult to adhere to prescribed medication schedules and instructions.
Acuity creep can strain healthcare systems and lead to challenges like:
- Increased healthcare providers’ workload
- Higher rates of staff burnout
- Difficulty in maintaining quality of care
- Compromised resident safety
- Decreased resident medication compliance
Reliable Tools for Medication Adherence in Long-Term Care
As organizations like yours strive to navigate the complexities of prescription management, the demand for established medication adherence tools has never been more pressing. Here are long-term care solutions proven to support resident compliance and streamline care processes:
Electronic Health Record (EHR) System
EHR systems significantly improve resident compliance within long-term care organizations by being a centralized platform for storing, updating, and retrieving resident records. They ensure caregivers can access crucial information whenever needed.
DosePacker’s care-community software system is an assisted living software designed to help long-term care communities maintain accuracy, increase efficiency, and decrease resource consumption. Here's how it supports medication adherence despite resident demands and staffing issues:
- Streamlined Documentation and Communication: DosePacker’s care-community software system provides a centralized platform for storing resident records, care plans, and communication logs. Equipped with medication adherence assessment tools, it gives your staff quick and secure access to relevant resident information anytime. This enhances resident compliance by reducing the likelihood of errors, miscommunication, and oversight.
- Robust Med Pass Module: One of DosePacker’s care-community software’s highlighted features is its comprehensive Med Pass module, which your staff can use to schedule medication administrations for every resident. With built-in reminder functions, the system automatically notifies staff and caregivers of upcoming doses and ensures an efficient and effective medication pass.
- Pharmacy and Device Integration: DosePacker’s care-community software system is integrated with several third-party pharmacy management systems and can streamline your medication ordering process. This helps you ensure your residents’ prescriptions are accurate, up-to-date, and properly documented.
Read More: How CareCatalyst Increases Healthcare Interoperability
Automated Compliance Packaging
If your community offers long-term care pharmacy services, automating the pill sorting and packaging process can save you time and energy. Automated compliance packaging systems use advanced technology to package medications into individualized, pre-sorted doses, often organized by the time and date they should be administered to residents.
By eliminating the need to sort and package medications manually, you can simplify your residents' medication administration regimen, streamline the med pass process, and boost medication compliance across your community.
Multi-dose compliance packaging by DosePacker is proven to help residents get the right dose at the right time. The packaging features the following visual and digital cues that prompt residents to take their medications at the designated times:
- Clear dose cups
- Accurate labels with the patient's name, day of the week, date, dose administration time, medication name, and pill counts
- High-visibility font
- High-resolution images of the medications
- Color-coded med pass schedule indicators
- QR code that facilitates seamless integration with other pharmacy solutions
- Tear-away medication sheets
Read More: Multi-Dose Compliance Packaging: What Does It Mean for Care Homes?
Smart Medication Storage Devices
Smart medication storage devices use advanced technology, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), barcodes, QR codes, and mobile application integration, to track medications from storage to administration. These features enhance medication management processes and support medication adherence.
Because every long-term care community’s needs and goals are unique, there is no one-size-fits-all medication storage device solution. DosePacker offers several options you can choose from:
- DoseMinder is a small, portable medication storage device that works hand in glove with the MyDoses medication management application. It is an excellent choice for residents who self-administer their medications
When it’s time for the resident to take their medicine, they get alerts from their MyDoses app and the DoseMinder device. The resident taps the MyDoses notification on their phone, the app verifies their identification, and then DoseMinder unlocks itself. The resident can then open the highlighted slot on their device and take medicine. - The DoseKart medication cart is a versatile tool for storing, transporting, and administering medications. The med carts feature secure medication compartments, the Smart Vision medication verification system, the DosePacker’s care-community software system, and a handheld scanner.
Ergonomic, user-friendly, and seamlessly integrated with DosePacker’s care-community software system, DoseKart is a must-have for communities that assist many residents with medication administration. During med pass, your staff member scans the resident’s ID badge, unlocking the medication compartment. They take the medicine from the highlighted slot, give it to the resident, and document the med pass process in DosePacker’s care-community software system.
Elevate Medication Adherence Effortlessly with DosePacker
As the field of long-term care continues to evolve at unprecedented speeds, organizations like yours must embrace innovative solutions to keep pace and remain competitive.
From assisted living software and prescription management applications to multi-dose compliance packaging and smart drug storage devices, DosePacker’s suite of medication adherence tools for patients and caregivers empowers you to overcome the challenges of resident compliance.
Harness the power of technology to elevate your quality of care and enhance the lives of your residents. Contact our team of technology experts today to learn how DosePacker can help!
