Association of Average Daily Morphine Milligram Equivalents and Falls in Older Adult Chronic Opioid Users.

Opioids remain commonly prescribed in older adults, despite the known association with falls and fall-related injuries. This retrospective cohort study sought to determine the association of opioid use and falls in older adult opioid users. Using a one-year lookback period in electronic health records, daily morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) were calculated using prescription orders. Fall history was based on patient self-reporting. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to identify the threshold of average daily MMEs at which the likelihood of falls was increased. Older opioid users were most often women and White, with 30% having fallen in the prior year. In ROC analyses (n = 590), the threshold where fall risk increased was 37 MMEs (p = 0.07). Older adults prescribed more than 37 MMEs daily may be at increased fall risk and should be targeted for deprescribing interventions. Additionally, analysis on patient characteristics and covariates suggest that sex, age, COPD, sleep apnea, cancer, and psychiatric conditions may indicate an increased risk of falls in older adults taking chronic opioids (p < 0.05). Multifactorial interventions may be needed to modify fall risk beyond medication use alone.

Assessing pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices of opioid management within different patient populations.

BACKGROUND: Racial disparities in drug overdose exist, with black, indigenous, and Hispanic individuals experiencing higher rates of opioid overdose deaths. Opioid use disorder prevention services, such as opioid deprescribing and naloxone dispensing, have been identified as ways to prevent opioid overdose. Pharmacists can help use these strategies, but racial disparities in use exist. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate North Carolina (NC) pharmacist knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of opioid management practices, including opioid deprescribing and naloxone dispensing, across different racial and ethnic groups. METHODS: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study conducted through a Web-based KAP survey distributed via e-mail to all NC pharmacists using a modified Dillman's method. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographics and pharmacist KAP data. Attitudes data were further analyzed using one-way analysis of variance tests and Tukey's post hoc analyses. RESULTS: After applying exclusion criteria, 527 participants were eligible for analysis; 254 of these individuals completed the entire survey. The survey response rate was 15.3% and respondents were mostly female (59.1%) and white (86.6%). Approximately half of pharmacists knew the correct opioid morphine milliequivalent cutoffs considered to be high risk (47.7%) and not to be exceeded (51.9%). When asked about chronic opioid statistics within the United States, respondents overestimated that 23.70% of patients on chronic opioid therapy receive naloxone (SD = 18.93%). Pharmacists believed that black patients were more likely to adhere to an opioid taper than any other race or ethnicity and Hispanic patients were more likely to adhere to naloxone treatment than any other race or ethnicity. Finally, 91% of pharmacists knew what an opioid taper was, but 77% of pharmacists had never designed one. CONCLUSIONS: Gaps in knowledge may contribute to further disparities in opioid management. Pharmacists' attitudes may contribute to biases in opioid management practices and practices related to opioid deprescribing may limit the pharmacists' current role. More education is needed so pharmacists can play an increased role in opioid management across all patient populations.

Provision of Patient Care Services and Goals for Expansion in Community and Ambulatory Care Pharmacies in Southeastern North Carolina.

In February 2022, the North Carolina legislature expanded pharmacist dispensing authority without a prescription. We conducted a cross-sectional interview of currently licensed pharmacy managers of outpatient pharmacies located in five counties in southeastern North Carolina. Pharmacy managers were eligible to participate if their pharmacy was either a community pharmacy, clinic-based pharmacy, or outpatient health system pharmacy. Forty-four of 116 eligible pharmacy managers participated (38% response rate). The most common services offered by pharmacies included medication synchronization services (93.2%), on-site immunizations (90.9%), and refill reminders (88.6%). The least common services offered include INR screens (0%), A1c screens (7%), and 'incident-to' billing services associated with CPT codes: annual wellness visits (0%), chronic care management (0%), transitional care management (0%), and remote patient monitoring (2.4%). The services that pharmacy managers wanted to learn more about through continuing education included: oral/transdermal contraceptives (60.5%), administration of long-acting injectables (LAIs) (36.8%), and dispensing of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (23.7%).

Patient Perceptions of Opioids and Benzodiazepines and Attitudes Toward Deprescribing.

BACKGROUND: Opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs) pose a public health problem. Older adults are especially susceptible to adverse events from opioids and BZDs owing to an increased usage of opioids and BZDs, multiple comorbidities, and polypharmacy. Deprescribing is a possible, yet challenging, solution to reducing opioid and BZD use. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore older adult patients' knowledge of opioids and BZDs, perceived facilitators and barriers to deprescribing opioids and BZDs, and attitudes toward alternative treatments for opioids and BZDs. METHODS: We conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with patients aged 65+ years with long-term opioid and/or BZD prescriptions. The interview guide was developed by an interprofessional team and focused on patients' knowledge of opioids and BZDs, perceived ability to reduce opioid or BZD use, and attitudes towards alternative treatments. RESULTS: Three patients had taken opioids, either currently or in the past, three had taken BZDs, and five had taken both opioids and BZDs. Generally, knowledge of opioids and BZDs was variable among patients; yet facilitators and barriers to deprescribing both opioids and BZDs were consistent. Facilitators of deprescribing included patient-provider trust and slow tapering of medications, while barriers included concerns about re-emergence of symptoms and a lack of motivation, particularly if medications and symptoms were stable. Patients were generally unenthusiastic about pursuing alternative pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic alternatives to opioids and BZDs for symptom management. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that patients are open to deprescribing opioids and BZDs under certain circumstances, but overall remain hesitant with a lack of enthusiasm for alternative treatments. Future studies should focus on supportive approaches to alleviate older adults' deprescribing concerns.

Are Physician Assistants Able to Correctly Identify Prescribing Errors? A Cross-Sectional Study.

PURPOSE: (1) To describe how often physician assistant (PA) students correctly identify prescribing errors and (2) examine between-cohort differences on ability to correctly identify prescribing errors. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 2 cohorts of PA students at one institution. Students were presented with 3 hypothetical prescriptions, 2 of which contained a prescribing error. For each prescription, students were asked to (1) identify whether an error occurred and (2) indicate the type of error. A simple Poisson regression model analyzed the data. RESULTS: We received responses from 130 students (72.6% response rate). Approximately 12% (12.3%, n = 16) correctly identified whether all 3 prescriptions were correct. The median number of correctly identified prescriptions was 1 (interquartile range = 1). There was not a statistically significant between-cohort difference identifying the correct number of prescriptions (ß = 0.27, P = .10). CONCLUSION: Physician assistant students' prescribing error identification was similar to previous research in medical and nursing students. Efforts to improve prescribing training are critical to ensure patient safety.

Community Pharmacy Recruitment for Practice-Based Research: Challenges and Lessons Learned.

To support the successful integration of community pharmacies into value-based care models, research on the feasibility and effectiveness of novel pharmacist-provided patient care services is needed. The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, supported by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation, designed the Community-based Valued-driven Care Initiative (CVCI) to (1) identify effective value-based patient care interventions that could be provided by community pharmacists, (2) implement and evaluate the feasibility of the selected patient care interventions, and (3) develop resources and create collaborative sustainability opportunities. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe recruitment strategies for CVCI and share lessons learned. The project team identified pharmacies for recruitment through a mixed data analysis followed by a "fit" evaluation. A total of 42 pharmacy organizations were identified for recruitment, 24 were successfully contacted, and 9 signed on to the project. During recruitment, pharmacies cited concerns regarding the financial sustainability of implementing and delivering the patient care services, challenges with staffing and infrastructure, and pharmacists' comfort level. To foster participation, it was vital to have leadership buy-in, clear benefits from implementation, and assured sustainability beyond the research period.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Community-Based Pharmacies: A Scoping Review.

As pharmacy practice shifts its focus toward population health care needs that serve public health, there is a need to understand community-based pharmacies' contributions to the reduction in health disparities. A scoping review was conducted to identify what community-based pharmacies in the United States are doing to target racial and ethnic disparities in community-based pharmacies. Forty-two articles revealed that community-based pharmacy services addressed racial and ethnic inequities in a variety of ways, including the types of interventions employed, as well as the ethnicities and conditions of the sample populations. Future work should focus on ensuring interventions are carried out throughout pharmacy practice and accessible to all racial and ethnic minoritized populations.

An EHR-based method to structure, standardize, and automate clinical documentation tasks for pharmacists to generate extractable outcomes.

As the recognition of team-based care grows and pharmacists increase in patient care interventions, it is important that tools to track clinical services are easily accessible and well-integrated into workflow for all providers. We describe and discuss feasibility and implementation of data tools in an electronic health record to evaluate a pragmatic clinical pharmacy intervention focused on deprescribing in aged adults delivered at multiple clinical sites in a large academic health system. Of the data tools utilized, we were able to demonstrate clear documentation frequency of certain phrases during the intervention period for 574 patients receiving opioids and 537 patients receiving benzodiazepines. Although clinical decision support and documentation tools exist, they are underutilized or cumbersome to integrate into primary health care and strategies, such as employed, are a solution. This communication incorporates the importance of clinical pharmacy information systems in research design.

A descriptive analysis of primary care providers' interest in clinical pharmacy services.

Background: Various clinical pharmacy services exist to improve the health outcomes of patients. However, there are numerous barriers to their implementation and execution, especially in outpatient settings. As pharmacists design and implement clinical pharmacy services in outpatient settings, they often do not consider the needs of providers until after service development. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess primary care providers' (PCPs') perceptions of clinical pharmacy services and their clinical pharmacy support needs. Methods: A web-based survey was distributed via email to PCPs across North Carolina (NC). Survey dissemination was completed in two phases. Data analysis consisted of mixed methods - quantitative and qualitative. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic differences within each phase as well as the ranking of medication classes/disease states by providers. Qualitative data analysis through inductive coding was done to assess provider perceptions of clinical pharmacy services. Results: The response rate of the survey was 19.7%. Providers with previous experience with a clinical pharmacist rated overall services as positive. 62.9% of PCPs (N = 80) provided their perception of the positive attributes (pros) of clinical pharmacy services. 53.5% of PCPs (N = 68) provided their perception of the negative attributes (cons) of clinical pharmacy services. The top three medication classes/disease states that providers indicated they would value clinical pharmacy services for were: comprehensive medication management (CMM), diabetes medication management, and anticoagulation medication management. Of the remaining areas assessed, statin and steroid management ranked the lowest. Conclusions: The results from this study demonstrated that clinical pharmacy services are valued by PCPs. They also highlighted how pharmacists can best contribute to collaborative care in outpatient settings. As pharmacists, we should aim to implement the clinical pharmacy services that PCPs would value most.

Systematic review of community pharmacist administration of long-acting injectable antipsychotic medications.

BACKGROUND: Long-acting injectable antipsychotic (LAIA) medications offer an effective treatment option for patients with serious mental illness. Despite demonstrated clinical safety and efficacy as well as increased adherence and less frequent administration compared with daily oral regimens, LAIAs remain underutilized in clinical practice. With legislation allowing pharmacists to administer injectable medications in 48 U.S. states, community pharmacies are uniquely positioned to serve as an access point for patients with serious mental illnesses to receive LAIA injections. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of the health and economic benefits and costs of community pharmacist administration of LAIA medications. METHODS: A systematic search of the literature published from January 1996 to April 2022 was conducted across 3 databases (Embase, PubMed, and Scopus Plus). Publications describing pharmacist administration of LAIA medications in outpatient settings were included. Publications that examined the use of LAIAs but did not involve a pharmacist administering the medication were excluded. RESULTS: Of 2261 publications reviewed, we identified 8 publications (4 articles and 4 abstracts) that met our inclusion criteria, of which only 7 included results. Four studies reported high medication adherence achieved by patients receiving pharmacist-administered LAIAs. Two publications surveyed patient satisfaction with pharmacist administration of LAIAs in community pharmacy settings. One study found pharmacists' mixed attitudes regarding LAIA administration and time and safety barriers to offering the service. CONCLUSION: We found very little evidence on the impact of pharmacist administration of LAIAs on patient outcomes. This review highlights the need to generate greater evidence on the health and economic benefits as well as financial models for pharmacists to administer LAIA medications in outpatient and community pharmacy settings. Such evidence could support more community pharmacists to offer LAIA medications and contribute to the shift toward value-based care.

Patterns and disparities in prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines for older adults in North Carolina.

BACKGROUND: We characterized real-world prescribing patterns of opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs) for older adults to explore potential disparities by race and sex and to characterize patterns of co-prescribing. METHODS: A retrospective evaluation was conducted using electronic health data for adults ≥65 years old who presented to one of 15 primary care practices between 2019 and 2020 (n = 25,141). Chronic opioid and BZD users had ≥4 prescriptions in the year prior, with at least one in the last 90 or 180 days, respectively. We compared demographic characteristics between all older adults versus chronic opioid and BZD users. We used logistic regression to identify characteristics (age, sex, race, Medicaid use, fall history) associated with opioid and BZD co-prescribing. RESULTS: We identified 833 (3.3%) chronic opioid and 959 chronic BZD users (3.8%) among all older adults seen in these practices. Chronic opioid users were less likely to be Black (12.7% vs. 14.3%) or other non-White race (1.4% vs. 4.3%), but more likely to be women (66.8% vs. 61.3%). A similar trend was observed for BZD users, with less prescribing among Black (5.4% vs. 14.3%) and other races (2.2% vs. 4.3%) older adults and greater prescribing among women (73.6% vs. 61.3%). Co-prescribing was observed among 15% of opioid users and 13% of BZD users. Co-prescribing was largely driven by the presence of relevant co-morbid conditions including chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia rather than demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: We observed notable disparities in opioid and BZD prescribing by sex and race among older adults in primary care. Future research should explore if such patterns reflect appropriate prescribing or are due to disparities in prescribing driven by biases related to perceived risks for misuse.

Adaptation and factor structure of three psychometric instruments measuring behavioral aspects of medication prescribing in physician assistants.

OBJECTIVES: (1) Present the factor structure of two psychometric instruments for self-efficacy and one for outcome expectations of medication prescribing; (2) evaluate the reliability of the scales, and (3) present preliminary evidence of validity. METHODS: Physician assistants (PA) and PA students completed a survey evaluating three psychometric instruments: (1) Self-Efficacy in Prescribing (SEP), (2) Self-Efficacy in Prescribing-Geriatric (SEPG), and (3) Outcomes Expectations of Prescribing Errors (OEP). Students also evaluated 3 hypothetical prescriptions, two of which contained a prescribing error. Students were instructed to identify (1) if an error occurred and (2) what type of error. The data were analyzed using parallel analysis with a varimax rotation, Cronbach's α, Pearson and Spearman correlations. RESULTS: One hundred eighty five (n = 185) respondents completed the survey (response rate = 63.8%). The parallel analysis found that the SEP had one 7-item factor with α = 0.94 (M = 5.7 (SD = 1.9) out of 10). The SEPG also had one 7-item factor with α = 0.95 (M = 5.5 (1.9). The OEP had one 6-item factor with α = 0.89 (M = 3.5 (SD = 0.8) out of 5). The SEP and SEPG, were correlated to the OEP each other (both p < 0.01). Actively practicing PAs had the highest composite mean SEP and SEPG scores. First-year PA students had the highest mean scores for the OEP. There was a weak association between the mean SEPG score and the number of correctly identified prescriptions (rs = 0.18, p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The SEP, SEPG, and OEP show preliminary evidence of reliability and structural, construct, and known-group validities using simulated prescriptions. These tools may be able to be used by educators and implementation scientists as one method to show the effectiveness of future interventions to reduce incidence of prescribing errors.

A taxonomy for community pharmacy patient care services reported in Pharmacist eCare Plans.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacies belonging to the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Service Networks (CPESN) are transforming their practices with support of the Flip the Pharmacy initiative. These pharmacies are submitting eCare plans that describe care that they have provided to patients. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were (1) To develop a taxonomy for services reported by community pharmacies participating in year 1 of the Flip the Pharmacy initiative and (2) to illustrate the use of the taxonomy for hypertension-related services. METHODS: A retrospective observational study design was used. The analyzed data were extracted from eCare plans submitted by participating pharmacies during the first year of the Flip the Pharmacy initiative (October 1, 2019-September 30, 2020). Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) codes submitted for encounter reason and for procedures were sorted into categories based on similarity of terminology in the SNOMED-CT code labels. All SNOMED-CT codes in the encounter reasons that had blood pressure or hypertension in their labels were mapped to taxonomy categories. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables. RESULTS: A total of 368,297 eCare plans reporting 1,049,061 SNOMED-CT procedures were submitted for 133,210 patients by 526 pharmacies. Seven categories of community pharmacy patient care services were identified: medication synchronization, medication review, monitoring, immunizations, patient education, adherence, and recommendations. Over half of the encounter reasons (63.5%) and procedures (56.2%) were for medication synchronization. Both medication review and monitoring accounted for about 10% of the encounters, and medication review made up over 30% of procedures. A total of 18,307 encounters were related to hypertension. Of these, monitoring was the most frequent, with 11,285 encounters (61.6%) encounters, followed by patient education, with 5173 encounters (28.3%). CONCLUSION: CPESN pharmacies are delivering a wide range of patient care services. This taxonomy provides a concise way to organize and report services being delivered by community pharmacies.

Primary-Care Prescribers' Perspectives on Deprescribing Opioids and Benzodiazepines in Older Adults.

PURPOSE: Opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs) are frequently implicated as contributing to falls in older adults. Deprescribing of these medications continues to be challenging. This study evaluated primary-care prescribers' confidence in and perceptions of deprescribing opioids and BZDs for older adults. METHODS: For this study, we conducted a quantitative analysis of survey data combined with an analysis of qualitative data from a focus group. A survey evaluating prescriber confidence in deprescribing opioids and BZDs was distributed to providers at 15 primary-care clinics in North Carolina between March-December 2020. Average confidence (scale 0-100) for deprescribing opioids, deprescribing BZDs, and deprescribing under impeding circumstances were reported. A virtual focus group was conducted in March 2020 to identify specific barriers and facilitators to deprescribing opioids and BZDs. Audio recordings and transcripts were analyzed using inductive coding. RESULTS: We evaluated 61 survey responses (69.3% response rate). Respondents were predominantly physicians (54.8%), but also included nurse practitioners (24.6%) and physician assistants (19.4%). Average overall confidence in deprescribing was comparable for opioids (64.5) and BZDs (65.9), but was lower for deprescribing under impeding circumstances (53.7). In the focus group, prescribers noted they met more resistance when deprescribing BZDs and that issues such as lack of time, availability of mental health resources, and patients seeing multiple prescribers were barriers to deprescribing. CONCLUSION: Findings from quantitative and qualitative analyses identified that prescribers were moderately confident in their ability to deprescribe both opioids and BZDs in older adults, but less confident under potentially impeding circumstances. Future studies are needed to evaluate policies and interventions to overcome barriers to deprescribing opioids and BZDs in primary care.

Beyond refill alignment: Evaluating the impact of appointment-based model.

BACKGROUND: The appointment-based model (ABM) is a framework for medication synchronization (med sync) which allows improved efficiency in pharmacy operations. Refill alignment forms the foundation of med sync programs and has proven to improve medication adherence. However it is uncertain if the remaining four components of ABM including the identification and enrollment of patients, medication review and patient assessment, preparation of medications, and delivery of medications can positively impact adherence. OBJECTIVE: To identify ABM core component(s) that significantly improve medication adherence and evaluate the extent to what prescription volume utilizing ABM impacts adherence. METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 68 community pharmacies. Medication adherence rates were collected for antihypertensive, antihyperlipidemic, and oral hypoglycemic agents. Analyses were performed to determine the impact of ABM operations on adherence. RESULTS: Four components of ABM were associated with significant improvement in adherence. The ABM operations related to those components include patient recruitment, medication delivery, flexible payment options, documenting synchronized medications and refill date, assessing patient ability to fill medications prior to refill date, refill timelines, and inquiring about medication changes during the patient outreach call (p < 0.05). While synchronizing at least 16% of a pharmacy's total prescription volume improved adherence, synchronizing at least 31% produced significant improvement across all chronic disease categories (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Operationalization of four core components from the ABM process - identifying and enrolling patients, medication review and assessment, alignment of refills and preparation of medications - were all found to significantly improve adherence. Pharmacies wanting to improve adherence rates across chronic disease categories should aim to have a minimum of 31% of their prescription volume synchronized.

An exploration of barriers, facilitators, and practical solutions for adopting medication synchronization into community pharmacies: A qualitative analysis.

Background: Community pharmacies across the nation have adopted medication synchronization (Med Sync) services with the aim of improving medication adherence. To help incorporate Med Sync into a pharmacy's workflow, pharmacy associations and organizations developed implementation guides for community pharmacies. However, considerable variability in the adoption of this service exists as pharmacies struggle to implement Med Sync into traditional workflow. Researchers identified early adopters of Med Sync who dispense majority of their prescriptions as part of a Med Sync program. An exploratory study was undertaken with the aim to reveal themes surrounding facilitators and barriers to adoption of Med Sync in community pharmacies. Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators associated with Med Sync adoption in community pharmacies and generate practical solutions for service adoption. Methods Community pharmacies participating in the North Carolina's Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESNsm) who were early adopters of Med Sync and had greater than 50% of their prescription volume being dispensed as part of a Med Sync program were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed verbatim with representatives who led the adoption of Med Sync in their pharmacy. Inductive coding and summary analysis were used to analyze the interview data and determine themes associated with facilitators and barriers. Results: Analysis of the interviews revealed four key themes: program organization, staff engagement, patient engagement, and provider engagements for Med Sync adoption. Each of these themes had several sub-themes, contributing to facilitators and barriers to Med Sync adoption. Subthemes of program organization included having organizational infrastructure, including a pharmacy software system, a dedicated area, and a consistent enrollment process. Subthemes of staff engagement included having a team-based approach, job training, and staff incentives. Patient engagement's subthemes included communication, finances, health literacy, and transportation. Provider engagement resulted with subthemes including lack of communication and provider-pharmacist relationships. Conclusion: To ensure successful adoption of Med Sync into traditional workflow, community pharmacies should employ a multi-factorial approach that includes internal and external components to the community pharmacy. This study identified facilitators associated with successful Med Sync adoption such as adequate staff engagement and requisite program organization. Barriers hindering successful Med Sync adoption resulted from challenges with provider and patient engagement. This study also makes an important contribution by providing practical solutions to Med Sync adoption based on participant responses and identified themes and sub-themes.

A deprescribing medication program to evaluate falls in older adults: methods for a randomized pragmatic clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs) are some of the most commonly prescribed medications that contribute to falls in older adults. These medications are challenging to appropriately prescribe and monitor, with little guidance on safe prescribing of these medications for older patients. Only a handful of small studies have evaluated whether reducing opioid and BZD use through deprescribing has a positive impact on outcomes. Leveraging the strengths of a large health system, we evaluated the impact of a targeted consultant pharmacist intervention to deprescribe opioids and BZDs for older adults seen in primary care practices in North Carolina. METHODS: We developed a toolkit and process for deprescribing opioids and BZDs in older adults based on a literature review and guidance from an interprofessional team of pharmacists, geriatricians, and investigators. A total of fifteen primary care practices have been randomized to receive the targeted consultant pharmacist service (n = 8) or usual care (n = 7). The intervention consists of several components: (1) weekly automated reports to identify chronic users of opioids and BZDs, (2) clinical pharmacist medication review, and (3) recommendations for deprescribing and/or alternate therapies routed to prescribers through the electronic health record. We will collect data for all patients presenting one of the primary care clinics who meet the criteria for chronic use of opioids and/or BZDs, based on their prescription order history. We will use the year prior to evaluate baseline medication exposures using morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) and diazepam milligram equivalents (DMEs). In the year following the intervention, we will evaluate changes in medication exposures and medication discontinuations between control and intervention clinics. Incident falls will be evaluated as a secondary outcome. To date, the study has enrolled 914 chronic opioid users and 1048 chronic BZD users. We anticipate that we will have 80% power to detect a 30% reduction in MMEs or DMEs. DISCUSSION: This clinic randomized pragmatic trial will contribute valuable evidence regarding the impact of pharmacist interventions to reduce falls in older adults through deprescribing of opioids and BZDs in primary care settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04272671 . Registered on February 17, 2020.

Pharmacist interventions to deprescribe opioids and benzodiazepines in older adults: A rapid review.

BACKGROUND: Many older adults are prescribed opioids and benzodiazepines (BZDs), despite increased susceptibility to adverse events. Challenges of deprescribing include fragmented care and lack of knowledge or time. Pharmacists are well-positioned to overcome these challenges and facilitate deprescribing of these medications. OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate interventions utilizing pharmacists to deprescribe opioids and BZDs in older adults. METHODS: We conducted a rapid review following a comprehensive literature search to identify interventions with pharmacist involvement for deprescribing opioids and BZDs in older adults. Studies were included based on: (1) inclusion of patients ≥ 65 years old receiving BZDs and/or opioids, (2) evaluation of feasibility or outcomes following deprescribing (3) pharmacists as part of the intervention. We included randomized, observational, cohort, and pilot studies. Studies that did not report specific results for BZD or opioids were excluded. RESULTS: We screened 687 abstracts and included 17 studies. Most (n = 13) focused on BZD deprescribing. Few studies focused on opioids (n = 2) or co-prescribing of opioids and BZDs (n = 2). The most common intervention was educational brochures (n = 8), majority being the EMPOWER brochure for deprescribing BZDs. Other interventions included chart review with electronic notes (n = 4), pharmacist-led programs/services (n = 2), and multifactorial interventions (n = 3). Many studies were underpowered or lacked suitable control groups. Generally speaking, interventions utilizing educational materials and those in which pharmacists engaged with patients and providers were more effective. Interventions relying on electronic communication by pharmacists were less successful, due to low acceptance or acknowledgement. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a number of feasible interventions to reduce BZD use, but fewer interventions to reduce opioid use in older adults. An optimal approach for deprescribing likely requires pharmacists to engage directly with patients and providers. Larger well-designed studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of deprescribing interventions beyond feasibility.