A Pocket Card on Approach to Older Patients and Common Drug Side Effects
University of Michigan Medical School
The pocket card provides a 6-step "checklist" of domains and assessment methods to guide assessment of older patients. The back of this card is a "reverse" list of medication side effects, categorized by side effects and lists of widely used medications associated with them.
1. Apply a systematic, comprehensive approach to assessing older patients.
2. Apply selected screening tools for identifying dementia, depression, gait disturbances, and abuse/neglect among older patients.
3. Identify drugs commonly associated with specific physical symptoms among older patients.
4. Assess and screen for morbidity in older patients.
5. Pharmacologic management of older patients.
1) The card must be introduced in the context of a talk or seminar on systematic approaches to the care of older patients. We use the Acute-on-Chronic Illness Framework developed at UM to introduce the types and range of concepts on the pocket card. Users should be trained in use and interpretation of the MMSE, Mini-Cog, Timed Up and Go, and use of SAFE questions to be used properly. 2) The card provides a systematic reminder list to look beneath the acute illness to discover common morbidities and sources of decline among older patients.
Comments
The key here is really in the description of the product--"The card must be introduced in the context of a talk or seminar on systematic approaches to the care of older patients." By itself the card provides small snippets of valuable information that nontheless can easily be found elsewhere--e.g. Geriatrics at Your Fingertips