VA method to stop unnecessary medications receives award

For many Veterans, taking a variety of medications is a necessity. But the simultaneous use of multiple medications can lead to dangerous drug interactions, adverse outcomes, and challenges with a patient’s ability to adhere to the proper schedule and dosage.

This ranks among the top 10 common causes of death in the U.S.

VIONE, a medication optimization method, works to address this critical issue in Veterans. VIONE was developed by Dr. Battar, associate chief of staff for Geriatrics and Extended Care Services at Central Arkansas VA.

Helping Veterans by stopping unnecessary medications

About 45% of prescribed medications are never taken by patients, leading to environmental pollution, unsafe practices, clinical waste and compromised quality of care.

VIONE is an innovative, simple, portable, modern medication optimization and de-prescribing global methodology to improve patient safety and quality of care. It offers an integrated approach to address the issue of overprescribing medications by using more holistic approaches to medicine.

VIONE is a tool and methodology that can be implemented to reduce polypharmacy by identifying and de-prescribing unnecessary, ineffective, or inappropriate medications through the application of the following five filters: Vital, Important, Optional, Not indicated and Every medication has an indication.

Dr. Sara Swathy Battar

Prescribing providers and pharmacists can practice safe medication de-prescribing through the VIONE discontinuation options and its documentation of medication management and polypharmacy review.

When they discontinue the medications, they select VIONE reasons in a drop down menu of discontinued orders and document in their notes. Data Analytics experts oversee daily updated data capture and report cards with rich granularity that is made available to all in real time with transparency.

The team works across multiple disciplines to provide the best possible care to Veterans across VA. The VIONE project proudly represented VA as a health care leader on a global platform through this gold award.

VIONE was initially launched in a 15-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit. It subsequently spread to primary care clinics, the community living center, and other areas at the North Little Rock VAMC.

Last November, Dr. Sara Swathy Battar accepted the Gold Austco Excellence Award for Quality and Patient Safety at the 45th World Hospital Congress of the International Hospital Federation. She accepted the award on behalf of the Michael E. DeBakey VA.

De-prescribed unnecessary medications for over 545,000 Veterans

The program was initially supported by VA’s Diffusion of Excellence. It has since spread to over 120 VA programs and has saved over $116 million through the de-prescribing of 1.3 million unnecessary medications in over 545,000 Veterans.

Battar and the rest of the VIONE team plan to continue to scale the practice nationally across VA and entered a global alliance in May 2022 to do so.

To learn more about VIONE, explore their page on the Diffusion Marketplace.

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