Promoting Medication Management Skills Among Home Health Occupational Therapists: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Medication management is a national patient safety goal for home care practice. Medication management is an occupation within the scope of occupational therapy. Occupational therapists are able to assess and provide intervention for cognitive, visual, motor, process, environmental and personal factors that impact an individual’s ability to manage their medication independently. This quality improvement project describes a program developed to promote medication management competence in occupational therapists practicing in a large, academic home health agency. The quality improvement project consisted of an online module providing education on the Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills (PASS) and a 1-hour training session combining didactic education with case-based learning. Pre-post assessment surveys revealed a 25% increase in perceived medication management competence after the intervention. Occupational therapists identified 4 barriers to medication management practice: role ambiguity, documentation challenges, pharmacology knowledge deficit, and reconciliation process barriers.