New partnership prioritises safe use of dangerous drugs

Choice Aged Care and DiamondCare have established a broad-ranging service partnership to support the aged care sector in relieving the medication management legislative burden around controlled drugs and alleviating nursing staff workload.

Choice Aged Care (CAC) is a clinical pharmacist RMMR/QUM service provider with a government-funded contract to 445 RACFs, operating in every state and territory. DiamondCare offers an electronic (paperless) controlled drug register for the aged care sector. The partnership will reflect a major improvement in the way dangerous drugs are managed for the 41,000 residents under CAC’s medication safety stewardship.

Choice Aged Care CEO Michael Bonner said the partnership forms an important component of the digital medication management ecosystem the group is establishing to support medication safety. The partnership enables the group’s pharmacists to deliver new and high-level opioid/psychotropic stewardship interventions and will drive continuous improvement in areas around staff workflows and compliance relating to opioids and controlled drugs. It will optimise the safe, effective, judicious and appropriate use of opioids for our residents, Bonner said.

Carl Zufi, Modeus CEO, said as the use of controlled drugs in aged care settings continues to grow, the need to move away from inefficient, manual, paper-based systems has never been more critical, and Choice Aged Care is the perfect partner to deliver on this mission.

Image: Supplied.