The Hidden Epidemic of Polypharmacy: Holiday Medication Safety

Did you know that medication safety issues account for nearly one-third of all hospitalizations in the United States? That's a staggering percentage, but probably not surprising to older adults or to those who care for them. Physicians and nurses call this problem “polypharmacy” – a precarious state of taking five or more medications. Over 10% of Americans take more than ten medications daily – a situation often referred to as “extreme polypharmacy.” The challenge is so widespread – and yet often underrecognized – that some call this a “ hidden epidemic.” This epidemic exists for many reasons, including:

• Seeing multiple prescribing doctors in a given year
• Having multiple medical problems
• Lack of training for medical providers in deprescribing
• Medical systems that prioritize treating individual medical diagnoses instead of the care of whole persons

Add to this a byzantine health insurance and pharmacy approval system, and it is easy to see how things can go awry. The Lown Institute estimates that “medication overload” contributes to premature deaths in 150,000 Americans annually.

But it’s not just an issue of too many medications. It’s also that – with so many medications from so many prescribers – it’s exceedingly hard to keep up! Only about 50% of us take our medications as prescribed, and yet pharmacists indicate that this number should be above 80% in order for medications to bring us the benefits for which they were created. As the former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop quipped many years ago, “ Drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them.”

The team at Alula wants to turn this challenge into an opportunity. Alula is, above all, an opportunity to connect and to communicate. When medication management is complicated, we need a care team to rally around simplified solutions.