News

Dovetail Health & Senior Living Residences
Launch Medication Management Pilot For Aging Adults
Unique partnership forms to address major issue facing the aging American community

Needham, MA (April 10, 2007) - Dovetail Health, a new company dedicated to helping aging Americans live independently as long as possible by personally monitoring and managing their health and medication needs, proudly announces a new partnership with Senior Living Residences, LLC (SLR) to launch the first-of-its-kind pilot program that evaluates the medication status of seniors who reside in or plan to move in to assisted living communities.

Up to 30 percent of all hospitalizations among older adults can be attributed to medication mismanagement. Further analysis showed that among these hospital admissions, 88 percent of the adverse reactions in the aging population were preventable.

"Too often older Americans are taking multiple medications from different doctors without coordination, putting them at risk of detrimental drug interactions that can worsen diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions," said Stever Aubrey, CEO of Dovetail Health. "This trend continuing, accompanied by the trend of older adults remaining the fast growing demographic, creates a huge burden on our healthcare system."

Under the Dovetail/SLR medication management pilot, a select group of older adults who live at or are planning to move into SLR's assisted living communities will meet with a Dovetail pharmacist, who will provide them with a medication analysis and summary. The goal of the pilot program is to ensure that these SLR residents and their physicians have the complete picture of the various prescription and over-the-counter medications being taken by the residents each day. The registered pharmacist from Dovetail will analyze any potential risks to the residents so they can live safely and stay healthy over the long term.

"Senior Living Residences is committed to promoting the dignity, choice, and independence of all of our residents, and working with Dovetail Health around broader aspects of medication awareness and management is a natural extension of this," said Robert F. Larkin, Principal and Co-Founder of Senior Living Residences, LLC. "Given the complex health needs of older Americans today, services like Dovetail's Comprehensive Medication Check-Up plan are a necessity. It helps us provide our residents the independent lifestyles they've come to expect, and it gives us increased peace of mind", said Peter G. Mullin, Principal and Co-Founder of SLR.

The Comprehensive Medication Check-Up plan consists of two parts: first Dovetail's geriatric-specialist registered Massachusetts Pharmacist performs an assessment of a senior's medication management needs, looking at their medications and individual health condition to evaluate risks and determine necessary improvements. At this stage which is ideally undertaken with the individual's family members present, the pharmacist will also answer any questions the senior may have. Second, the pharmacist will prepare an easy to read report highlighting any medication related safety risks, a cost/benefit analysis on managing current medications, and recommendations for improvement.

"Dovetail Health is thrilled to be partnering with Senior Living Residences, a leader in assisted living who always puts the needs of older Americans first," added Aubrey. "We designed the Comprehensive Medication Check-Up plan to help seniors actively manage their medications and take control of their health. Our unique pilot program with Senior Living Residences will help deliver these benefits to older adults living in Greater Boston."

The pilot will run for approximately one month, and further expansion of the program will be determined after an evaluation is completed.

» download pdf   » back to News listing