Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions/Screening Tools to Alert Doctors to Right Treatment Medication Criteria Modified for U.S. Nursing Home Setting.

OBJECTIVES: To develop a set of prescribing indicators measurable with available data from electronic nursing home (NH) databases by adapting the European-based 2014 Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions (STOPP) and Screening Tools to Alert Doctors to Right Treatment (START) criteria of potentially inappropriate and underused medications for the U.S.

SETTING: A two-stage expert panel process. In the first stage, the investigator team reviewed 114 criteria for compatibility and measurability. In the second stage, an online modified e-Delphi (OMD) panel was convened to rate the validity of criteria, and two webinars were held to identify criteria with highest relevance to U.S. NHs.

PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen experts with recognized reputations in NH care participated in the e-Delphi panel and 12 in the webinar.

MEASUREMENTS: Compatibility and measurability were assessed by comparing criteria with U.S. terminology and setting standards and data elements in NH databases. Validity was rated using a 9-point Likert-type scale (1 = not valid at all, 9 = highly valid). Mean, median, interpercentile ranges, and agreement were determined for each criterion score. Relevance was determined by ranking the mean panel ratings on criteria that reached agreement; the webinar participants reviewed and approved half of the criteria with the highest mean values.

RESULTS: Fifty-three STOPP/START criteria were deemed to be compatible with the U.S. NH setting and measurable using data from electronic NH databases. E-Delphi panelists rated 48 criteria as valid for U.S. NHs. Twenty-four criteria were deemed to be most relevant, consisting of 22 measures of potentially inappropriate medications and two measures of underused medications.

CONCLUSION: This study created the first explicit criteria for assessing the quality of prescribing in U.S. NHs.