Making care safer: Care Home use of Medicines Study (CHUMS)

In brief

An elderly person living in a care home takes around eight different medicines every day. In October 2009, the Care Home use of Medicines Study (CHUMS), funded by the Department of Health, found unacceptable levels of error in the medications received by care home residents (average age 85).

Seven out of ten residents were experiencing at least one medication error on any given day. The mistakes ranged from inappropriate prescribing, missed doses, to the wrong drugs being administered to residents, and have the potential to cause serious harm. 

In response to the report, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Health Foundation and Age UK partnered to capture stories from a carer perspective and start work to support the care home sector.

Focus groups

In 2010, the Health Foundation and Age UK hosted three focus groups for the Age UK network ‘Experts by experience’. The groups were made up of people who have experience of a family member in a care home and are also trained as assessors for the Care Quality Commission, participating in inspection of care homes.

They have a wealth of personal experience as carers for people who live in care homes and through their assessment work have spoken to many residents, family members and staff. The focus groups were designed to capture their testimony through personal stories and objective feedback. We also gathered their views on what could be done to improve care.

The focus groups highlighted many issues and potential solutions, broadly captured under four main themes:

• Communication and information sharing
• Prescribing and administration of medicine
• Staff development and support
• Advocacy and rights

Next steps

The initial collaboration has since been strengthened by a partnership with the care home sector and other agencies. The learning from the focus groups is the start of a nine month improvement project to identify, prioritise and test the tools needed to improve the safety of care received by the elderly and vulnerable residents of care homes.