Since March 2012, when CMS initially announced its goal for reducing antipsychotic drug use by 15 percent in our nation's nursing homes, steady progress has been made in meeting that objective.   By the end of the second quarter, year 2014, the national goal of a 15 percent reduction had been met, and Kentucky facilities achieved an average reduction of 19.6%.  In fact, Kentucky was one of the first eleven states to achieve the CMS goal.   CMS ultimately responded by establishing new national goals of a 25% reduction by the end of calendar year 2015, and a 30% reduction by the end of calendar year 2016.

CMS's most recent progress report regarding its initiative revealed continued progress in antipsychotic reduction, particularly on the national level.  This latest report was released by CMS in December 2016 and reflected data collected through the third quarter of year 2016.  The report revealed the goal of a 30% reduction in antipsychotic use had already been exceeded on a national basis, and well ahead of the target date (i.e., by the end of calendar year 2016).  At the conclusion of the third quarter, year 2016, use of antipsychotics nation-wide had been diminished by 32.4%, and the national prevalence of use in the nation's nursing homes rested at 16.1%.  Although the State of Kentucky had made substantial progress in that endeavor, we fell a bit short of the national averages, showing an overall reduction in antipsychotic use of only 24.6%, and a prevalence of antipsychotic use of 19.6%.  It is reasonable to expect our State's nursing homes will continue the quest to further reduce their use of antipsychotics since several of our neighboring states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, and Virginia reduced their prevalence of use to 13.7%, 14.1%, 15.4%, and 15.5% respectively.