Annals of Long Term Care

On-call rotations are stressful for most clinicians. Taking on-calls for the nursing home (NH) population presents many challenges for covering clinicians, who may not be familiar with geriatrics practices and patient presentations. Information related to the patient condition may be communicated adequately from the nursing staff, but the clinician may not be familiar with NH capabilities of care and other mitigating circumstances. Liability and the ability to assess the best place of care based on patient changes in condition can make for difficult decision-making.

Introduction
Over the past 18 months, sales of the Nintendo Wii™, Electronic Arts Sports Active™, and Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)™ totaled $2 billion worldwide.¹ Gamers today represent a broad range of ages and backgrounds. The average gamer is 39 years old, 40% are women, and more than 25% are age 50 and over.² It was estimated that by the end of 2009, 68% of American households would have a gaming console in the home.2

Older persons have not missed out on this trend, with several media reports of entire nursing home chains and senior cente

Introduction
A majority of residents in long-term care (LTC) are at risk for frequent hospitalizations, functional decline, and death.^1,2 Transitions from the hospital, with declines in functional status, with new life-threatening diagnoses, are common in LTC. These transitional events are opportunities to review resident/family understanding and update goals of care. Ideally, conversations about advance care planning occur prior to admission to a LTC community; however, this is not always the case. Even if an advance care planning document exists, it should be reviewed. Adv

This article is part II of a two-part series update on pharmacotherapy, and it focuses on infectious disease, positive Beers criteria, and pharmacist interventions. Part I appeared in the December issue of the Journal and focused on cardiology, neurology, and psychiatry.

Introduction

This article is intended to provide a review of recently published literature of relevance to the care of older adults. It focuses on studies that involve pharmacotherapeutic interventions, including both risks and benefits. It is important for clinicians to decide independently how the results

This article is part I of a two-part series update on pharmacotherapy, and it focuses on cardiology, neurology, and psychiatry. Part II, which will be published in a subsequent issue of the Journal, will focus on infectious disease, positive Beers criteria, and pharmacist interventions.

Introduction

This article is intended to provide a review of recently published literature of relevance to the care of older adults. It focuses on studies that involve pharmacotherapeutic interventions, including both risks and benefits. It is important for clinicians to decide independen