As Americans we have a complicated relationship with nursing homes. We want our elderly loved ones to have the care they need. Yet the residents here are often neglected by those who put them there and and provide for them. When the elderly move into these homes, there is the promise that its better for them. The reality is that a majority of these communities are understaffed. This has only gotten worse with the current labor shortages.
A recent study found that 99% of nursing homes and 96 % of assisted living communities face staffing shortages. A majority of them have to now use temporary staffing agency to supplement their teams. To these untrained workers, medication management can be confusing and error-prone. The residents are more likely to suffer from many medication conditions. This management of multiple medications complicates the already busy routine of the workers.
In a NIH report, 42% of observable adverse drug events (defined as someone harmed by a medicine) in a long term care setting were preventable. These most often occur when ordering and monitoring stages of pharmaceutical care. Older adults are seven times more likely than younger adults to be hospitalized as a result of these events. And adverse drug events cause over 1 million emergency visits each year.
There is no single way to solve this problem. But the fact remains fewer people with less training are doing more work for more people. At 4DA, our mission is to provide some help to these overwhelmed workers and their patients. Our mission is to save lives and improve medication management.
Our revolutionary product, Scriptio, allows workers to access resident health information. No more clipboards or bulky laptops when dispensing medications. No more confusion about which medications a resident should be receiving. And a unified record shared between all medical providers keeps accuracy high. By tracking when residents take their medication, we can track compliance and adherence in real time.
For medical providers, Scriptio allows accurate information – all data is provided by physicians or pharmacists. Anywhere. Anytime.