Improving health outcomes for care home patients, with the NHS Business Services Authority
The NHSBSA has analysed approximately 2.5 billion pieces of information linked to prescribing patterns in care homes across England, and published its latest ‘Prescribing Patterns for Care Home Patients’ analysis.
Care home patients receive a different form and quantity of prescribing, compared with non-care home patients of a similar age. It’s difficult to provide any analysis of this prescribing because prescription forms don’t capture the type of properties patients live in. Therefore, data has to be captured by other, usually lengthy means.
The NHSBSA matched patient address details from prescription forms to help identify which patients were in care homes, enabling four years of prescription forms for the over 65s (around 2.5 billion items) to be categorised by their care home status.
This new analysis, carried out by the NHSBSA data and insight teams, has improved understanding of patients living in care homes and provides information to support better care and inform better decision making in the future. The NHSBSA report highlights that the analysis ‘addresses a key gap in knowledge and gives valuable insights which can inform the use and management of medicines in care homes to help improve health outcomes, quality of care and ensure value.’
'Prescribing Patterns for Care Home Patients' is an annual publication, openly available to the public. It is becoming more valuable and insightful with each product iteration, leading to a more detailed understanding of the year-on-year increase of care home prescribing and patient numbers.
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