The following is an alert for the Q2 2021 Antipsychotic Drugging Rates. To access the data, click here.

January 11, 2022 – Inappropriate antipsychotic (AP) drugging is a pervasive problem in nursing homes across the country with more than one in five residents receiving AP drugs, most without clinical justification. Too often, these highly potent drugs are used to sedate residents, even though they are not clinically indicated for treatment of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. Residents receiving AP drugs often suffer socially and emotionally while facing increased risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, Parkinsonism, and falls.

Today, LTCCC is releasing antipsychotic drugging rates (non-risk-adjusted) for US nursing homes in the second quarter of 2021. These data show that AP drugs are being administered to 21.1% of nursing homes residents – 10x the rate of the population that will ever have a diagnosis qualifying for potentially appropriate use.

Individual data files are available for each US state and can be easily sorted by nursing home name, city, county, and antipsychotic drugging rates. For the first time, today’s report includes important information on ownership type, federal rating, and staffing levels for every nursing home. This information will enable the public to better identify and assess relevant quality and safety issues for the nursing homes in their communities.

Selected Highlights

  • More than 1 in 5 residents (21.1%) received APs in Q2 2021. Of the residents receiving APs, 85.8% receive them daily.
  • For-profit nursing homes have higher AP drugging rates (22.1%) than non-profit (16.5%) and government (20.4%) nursing homes.
  • More than a quarter (26.51%) of residents in 1-star nursing homes received APs compared to 16.2% in 5-star nursing homes.
  • AP drugging varied significantly by state and by CMS Regional Location. Illinois (28.7%), Missouri (27.5%), Louisiana (25.5%), and Alabama (25.0%) had the highest rates of AP drugging; Hawaii (11.3%), Alaska (13.3%), Delaware (16.6%), and Wisconsin (17.0%) had the lowest rates of AP drugging.

User-friendly data on AP drugging rates for Q2 2021 are available at https://nursinghome411.org/ap-drug-q2-2021/. For state-level data, see our interactive Tableau visualization or view “Summary Data” tabs on excel files.

Check out LTCCC’s Dementia Care Advocacy Toolkit for free resources to help families, and those who work with them, know their rights and advocate for less drugging and better care for their residents with dementia.

Note: National, state, and regional averages in this report have been updated to include all nursing homes with AP drugging data provided by CMS. These averages previously excluded a small percentage of nursing homes whose provider numbers did not match provider numbers in other databases. AP drugging data related to ownership type and star ratings in this report, however, exclude nursing homes with unmatched provider numbers.