Experts at AAGP Annual Meeting Offer Tips for Taking Older Patients ’ Medication History

Psychiatrists who treat older patients should review their patients ’ medications very carefully, particularly when they are seeing a patient for the first time after a referral from a hospital, speakers at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2023 Annual Meeting in New Orleans said yesterday.“More than 60% of medication reconciliation errors occur during transitions of care, usually on hospital admission, but then they perpetuate down the line” with each transition, such as from general hospital to psychiatric hospital, or upon discharge to home or another facility, said Paula Leste r, M.D., in a presentation titled “Medication Reconciliation: Paperwork Saves Lives.” She is an associate professor of medicine at New York University (NYU) Long Island School of Medicine. “This is even more true for psychiatric patients, especially geriatric psychiatric patients because they have more frequent and longer admissions, and they have more care transitions.”Lester added that older patients with mental illness often end up being transferred from a general hospital to a psychiatric hospital or vice versa, and that the electronic health record systems may not integrate well with one another. Furthermore, hospitalists in other specialties may be unaware of possible interactions between psychiatric medications and the medications they prescribe, she added.Mark Shen, Pharm.D., a clinical pharmacist in care transitions at NYU Langone Hospital –Long Island...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: AAGP American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Meeting hospital Mark Shen medications older patients Paula Lester polypharmacy transition of care Source Type: research