Geriatric Medication Precautions

At conclusion, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians should be able to:

• Recognize the reasons why the elderly population requires special medication precautions.
• Identify the potential drug related problems with medications prescribed to the elderly.
• Define prescribing cascade and learn to detect it to prevent medication problems in older people.
• Describe the IGRIMUP and their role in the global effort to reduce inappropriate and polypharmacy prescribing practices in older adults.
• List the tools available to identify pharmacotherapy problems to modify and improve a drug regimen for older adults.
• Review the Beers Criteria and the rationale for use in preventing Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIM) and other drugs to avoid in older persons.
• Explain the STOPP/START criteria and how it helps minimize potentially inappropriate prescribing in the elderly.
• Examine the reasoning behind Deprescribing and why it is an essential element of good prescribing practices.
• Evaluate the Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) and its reliability as a quality measure for potentially inappropriate prescribing.
• Describe the ARMOR protocol along with its primary outcome goals, the functional status and mobility of elderly patients
• Recognize the Good Palliative-Geriatric Practice Algorithm and how physicians use it to reduce polypharmacy.
• Recognize the FORTA method, a clinical tool designed to increase appropriateness of pharmacotherapy in older adults.
• Identify other supportive tools such as the Anticholinergic Risk Scale, Prescribing Optimization Method and the Drug Burden Index used to resolve polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications and potentially omitted drugs.
• Discuss the effect a CMR conducted by a pharmacist can make in decreasing medication related complications for the elderly.
• Categorize recommendations to give seniors on how to manage their medications safely to avoid drug related problems.
• Describe methods to prevent drug related problems, before prescribing and after prescribing medication for older adults.