Pharmacist-driven deprescribing initiative in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy, a broad term to describe the use of numerous and often unnecessary medications, has been connected to frailty, hospital admissions, falls, and even mortality. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) developed the VIONE (vital, important, optional, not indicated, and every medication has an indication) dashboard to identify patients with polypharmacy and serve as a framework for deprescribing of medications across VHA facilities where it is used in a variety of practice settings by different disciplines. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe the implementation of a pharmacist-led, system-wide, deprescribing initiative in the primary care setting. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: Interdisciplinary education was provided through academic detailing. Subsequently, patients were identified for inclusion in the project using the VIONE dashboard focusing on those at highest risk of polypharmacy and moving down to the lowest risk. Interested patients underwent a medication reconciliation. A clinical pharmacist practitioner (CPP) then contacted the patient to discuss potential deprescribing options. Recommendations were relayed to the primary care provider (PCP) for final approval and communicated to the patient by the pharmacy team. PRACTICE INNOVATION: Primary care CPPs (n = 3) integrated deprescribing into their standard workload. This service was implemented in the primary care setting across an entire health care system consisting of 16 different primary care teams. EVALUATION METHODS: The initiative's impact was measured by the number of discontinued medications, the acceptance rate of recommendations by the PCP, the potential annualized cost avoidance, and the number of patients referred to CPP medication management clinics. RESULTS: Among 63 patients, a total of 352 medications were deprescribed resulting in a potential annualized cost avoidance of $184,221. The acceptance rate of discontinuation recommendations was 96.7%. Subsequently, 25.4% of patients were referred to pharmacist-led clinics for disease state management. CONCLUSION: Embedding deprescribing into standard CPP workflow within the primary care setting facilitated a way for polypharmacy reduction and allowed the expansion of pharmacy-led services at VA Butler Healthcare System.

Seizures in palliative medicine: brivaracetam.

Seizures occur in around 13% of patients with cancer and can be distressing for family members to witness. In those unable to manage regular antiepileptic medications, midazolam can be administered subcutaneously using a syringe driver, but this may cause sedation. Brivaracetam is a newer drug licensed as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalisation and for restricted use in those with refractory epilepsy. It is associated with fewer behavioural or psychiatric side effects than levetiracetam, has a very low incidence of drug interactions and the maximal dose can be accommodated in a single syringe driver. We present three cases from 2019 to 2020 where subcutaneous brivaracetam has been successfully used in a Specialist Inpatient Palliative Care setting to manage seizures. Brivaracetam dosing is 1:1 conversion from oral:subcutaneous, with syringe driver doses ranging from 150 mg to 300 mg/24 hours being successfully used, with no adverse effects observed.

Erythromycin: prophylaxis against recurrent small bowel obstruction.

We describe three cases where erythromycin suspension has been used successfully in preventing recurrence of small bowel obstruction in patients with terminal illness and for whom it proved more effective than standard preparations such as metoclopramide and domperidone. These patients also experienced a longer term benefit over some months. With recent alerts over longer term use of metoclopramide and domperidone, we demonstrate that erythromycin is a viable alternative prokinetic in patients with terminal illness at risk of small bowel obstruction instead of or alongside metoclopramide and domperidone. More research is required to establish the point at which erythromycin should be considered in the management of symptoms. In addition, research into the possibility of a viable alternative to erythromycin is needed.