Abstract
Background
Deprescribing is a process of tapering or stopping medications to achieve improved health outcomes. The process is widely recommended to reduce the burden of polypharmacy in older or frail patients. Healthcare providers’ (HCPs) role has been reported to be important when deprescribing in clinical practice. Despite the potential, little is known about the views and experiences of HCPs about deprescribing in Indonesia. Therefore, this study aims to present the preliminary results of the views and experiences of HCPs in Indonesia about deprescribing medications in patients with polypharmacy.
Methods
The study was carried out using semi-structured interviews with three HCPs, comprising a general practitioner (GP), internist, and pharmacist, who were selected as informants. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and directed content analysis was performed to extract the data.
Results
Themes about HCPs’ knowledge, skills, experience, and interaction between HCPs, patients, and patient families were found. Although the HCPs understood the importance of deprescribing, some challenges in implementing the process were admitted. These comprised a lack of specific guidelines, barriers to communication skills, building trust from the patients, and insufficient time and resources to support deprescribing decisions. Therefore, closer collaboration between HCPs and good interaction with patients and their families may be favorable when conducting deprescribing.
Conclusion
This first exploration study showed that there were most likely knowledge gaps in deprescribing practices in Indonesia, particularly regarding preventive medications in patients with polypharmacy. Consequently, studies involving more HCPs may help determine their roles in deprescribing and the barriers and enablers to implementation.