Antipsychotics use falls when LTC nurse staffing hours rise

Higher staffing levels in long-term care facilities are linked with lower rates of antipsychotic prescribing, finds a new study representing data from most U.S. nursing homes.

Investigators examined records across more than 10,400 facilities including staffing levels and the frequency of inappropriate antipsychotic prescribing between 2016 and 2018. Data came from the federal Nursing Home Compare and Brown University’s LTCFocus datasets.

Facilities overall had a 15.24% rate of antipsychotic use, with a significant association between how well they were staffed and level of inappropriate prescribing, reported Dallas P. Seitz, MD, PhD, of Queen’s University and Calgary University in Canada.