The latest Residential Aged Care Quality Indicators report from the Federal Government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found that 38.3% of residents were prescribed nine or more medications – the trigger for the polypharmacy indicator – and 20.7% had received an antipsychotic.
This was a drop compared to the previous report from Residential Aged Care Quality Indicators, when 41% of residents were prescribed nine or more medications and 21.6% received an antipsychotic.
The Residential Aged Care Quality Indicators measures data from all 2,436 residential aged care homes on:
- Pressure injuries;
- Physical restraint;
- Unplanned weight loss;
- Falls and major injury, and
- Medication management.
It found from 1 October to 31 December last year that:
- 21.9% (25% six months earlier) of residents had been physically restrained;
- 8.9% (8.4%) of residents had experienced unplanned weight loss;
- 5.7% (5.9%) had suffered one or more pressure injuries;
- 31.5% (31.9%) suffered a fall; and
- 2.1% (2.1%) experienced a fall that caused a major injury.
Most Quality Indicators in this report were measured during specified assessment windows (e.g. physical restraint is assessed during a review of three days of records in the quarter). The results for some Quality Indicators may therefore not represent the occurrence of those events across other, non-assessed periods in the quarter.
