GEDC Course: Medication Management in the Older ED Patient
The Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative (GEDC) has released an e-learning course module on medication management for older emergency department patients.
Medication management is an extremely important issue in the care of older emergency department (ED) patients. In an era of chronic disease management, many older patients come to the emergency department already taking five or more medications. In fact, many ED visits are caused by adverse effects of some medications.
The course module will review the physiologic changes that occur with aging and demonstrate the effect they can have on how the aging body both processes and responds to medications. Course takers will examine case studies, all of which could appear in the ED, that illustrate points about polypharmacy, communication, and strategies to manage especially high-risk medication classes. This is a Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science accredited course.
GEDC has also previously released a research article explaining that polypharmacy may potentially lead to adverse effects due to inappropriate medications. The article talks about how pharmacist review and intervention can decrease the number of potentially inappropriate medications.
Learn more about the GEDC course.
Read the research article.
Visit the GEDC website.
Learn more about JAHF's support of GEDC.
