There are many guidelines for starting and managing medications, but significantly fewer resources exist that address when to consider stopping therapy. Patients who remain on too many meds at end-of-life have an increased risk of undesired outcomes. Let’s review the top 3 questions to consider when reviewing your hospice patient’s meds.

1. Is the medication still needed for patient comfort?

When it comes to end-of-life, the most challenging part is realizing that you’re not trying to fix anything. You should focus only on patient comfort and symptom management. When you are reviewing your patient’s meds, consider if what they are taking falls into that category (for example, blood pressure, diabetes, or thyroid medications).

2. What side effects does the patients meds have?

Do your patient’s medications result in dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, or light-headedness upon standing? If so, then you should consider doing a medication review. Doing this can help reduce undesirable side effects and increase the patient’s overall comfort.

3. Does your patient have difficulty taking meds?

If your patient has difficulties taking meds due to changes in their ability or comfort swallowing, there may be other options to continue therapy. However, if the medications are not providing any symptom relief/benefit, you may want to consider reviewing to eliminate anything that proves unnecessary.

Serve your patients better

BetterRX has dedicated PharmD’s who can help answer any questions you have and help with medication reviews.

Are you ready to get on the better side of medication ordering?

Schedule a free discovery call with our team here.