National Provider Call Suggests Strategies for Medication Reduction

The CMS national provider call focused on behavior management for dementia residents that centers on utilizing root cause analysis to determine when and why the behavior is occurring.  Once the "when" and "why" are determined, the facility can then prepare a plan to address the behavior in advance, and educate staff to manage the behavior or work to prevent the behavior at an anticipated time.

Speakers on the call cautioned clinicians to take sufficient time to evaluate medication change effectiveness when conducting trials for dosage reduction and psychoactive medication elimination, and to not be too quick to reinstate the medication prior to exhausting non-pharmacological behavior management approaches.

The audio recording and written transcript of this MLN Connects Call will be posted to the call detail web page, once it is available. 

Contact:  Michelle Synakowski, msynakowski@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8850