Development and consensus testing of quality indicators for geriatric pharmacotherapy in primary care using a...

Area of Science:

• Geriatric pharmacotherapy
• Pharmaceutical care quality
• Health services research

Background:

• Polypharmacy in older adults increases adverse drug event risk.
• Japan lacks routine monitoring tools for community pharmacist geriatric pharmacotherapy quality.
• Existing national guidance needs practical application tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop quality indicators (QIs) for community pharmacists in Japan.
• To measure the quality of geriatric pharmacotherapy in primary care.
• To address the lack of monitoring tools for medication quality in elderly patients.

Main Methods:

• A modified Delphi study involving 10 geriatric pharmacotherapy experts.
• Two rounds of rating with a face-to-face meeting.
• QIs mapped to ATC classification, DRPs taxonomy, and Donabedian's framework.

Main Results:

• 134 QIs for geriatric pharmacotherapy were developed.
• 111 medicine-specific indicators covered 243 third-level ATC classifications.
• Most QIs focused on treatment safety (80%) and drug selection (38%), primarily as process indicators (82%).

Conclusions:

• A comprehensive set of 134 QIs for geriatric pharmacotherapy was rigorously developed.
• These QIs are intended for use by community pharmacists in Japan.
• Future research will evaluate the measurement properties and implementation of these QIs.