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Geriatric Prescribing Principles and Interprofessional Healthcare Team Leadership

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Geriatric Medicine

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Abstract

People are living longer with multiple comorbid chronic disease states leading to polypharmacy and a high risk of adverse events. The presence of comorbid conditions often leads to the exclusion of older persons in clinical drug trials. Insufficient expertise regarding physiologic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic changes of aging contributes to increased risk of inappropriate prescribing. Assessment of the whole patient to provide person-centered care, and particularly each medication, is essential to high-quality clinical decision-making. All symptoms should be carefully assessed with a keen eye toward potential side effects of existing medication as the cause to avoid the prescription cascade and polypharmacy. Consideration for deprescribing includes downward titration to the lowest amount of medication to balance treatment with the highest quality of life.

Effective interprofessional care teams are superior to the parallel efforts of siloed professionals and decrease functional decline and hospital length of stay among elder persons. Fluid leadership among team members that provides for the needs of person-centered care is superior to static leadership based on position or profession. Communication among the patient, family, and care team is vital to achieving the patient’s treatment goals.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Pharmacy Residency Program, Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, Tampa, FL, USA

    Janice Hoffman-Simen

  2. College of Pharmacy, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA

    Janice Hoffman-Simen

  3. College of Health Sciences, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA

    Tina Meyer

Authors
  1. Janice Hoffman-Simen
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  2. Tina Meyer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janice Hoffman-Simen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, Newbury Park, CA, USA

    Michael R. Wasserman

  2. Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Debra Bakerjian

  3. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Aurora, CO, USA

    Sunny Linnebur

  4. Division of Geriatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Sharon Brangman

  5. Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Matteo Cesari

  6. Section of Geriatric Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Beverly Hills, CA, USA

    Sonja Rosen

Section Editor information

  1. California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, Newbury Park, CA, USA

    Michael R. Wasserman

  2. Department of Geriatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Sharon Brangman

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Hoffman-Simen, J., Meyer, T. (2024). Geriatric Prescribing Principles and Interprofessional Healthcare Team Leadership. In: Wasserman, M.R., Bakerjian, D., Linnebur, S., Brangman, S., Cesari, M., Rosen, S. (eds) Geriatric Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74720-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74720-6_4

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