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Falls are a major cause of preventable death, injury, and reduced independence in adults aged 65 years and older. The American Geriatrics Society and British Geriatrics Society (AGS/BGS) published a guideline in 2001, revised in 2011, addressing common risk factors for falls and providing recommendations to reduce fall risk in community‐dwelling older adults. In 2022, the World Falls Guidelines (WFG) Task Force created updated, globally oriented fall prevention risk stratification, assessment, management, and interventions for older adults. Our objective was to briefly summarize the new WFG, compare them to the AGS/BGS guideline, and offer suggestions for implementation in the United States. We reviewed 11 of the 12 WFG topics related to community‐dwelling older adults and agree with several additions to the prior AGS/BGS guideline, including assessment and intervention for hearing impairment and concern for falling, assessment and individualized exercises for older adults with cognitive impairment, and performing a standardized assessment such as STOPPFall before prescribing a medication that could potentially increase fall risk. Notable areas of difference include: (1) AGS continues to recommend screening all patients aged 65+ annually for falls, rather than just those with a history of falls or through opportunistic case finding; (2) AGS recommends continued use of the Timed Up and Go as a gait assessment, rather than relying on gait speed; and (3) AGS recommends clinical judgment on whether or not to check an ECG for those at risk for falling. Our review and translation of the WFG for a US audience offers guidance for healthcare and other providers and teams to reduce fall risk in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adverse drug events (ADEs) during hospitalization are a serious, yet preventable concern for older adults. Our institution designed a Geriatric Prescribing Context (GPC) to adjust doses for the older adult population but its impact on ADEs was unknown. The goal of this study was to assess any differences in rates of ADEs before and after its implementation in July 2017. Methods: We used relevant ICD‐10 codes followed by confirmatory chart review to identify dose‐related ADEs from 10 commonly used medications at our institution. We assessed differences in the number of admissions with an ADE before and after the GPC implementation using a test of binomial proportions. The pre‐period was from July 2016 through June 2017 and the post‐period was from August 2017 through July 2018. We compared the rate of ADEs per 1000 patient days between periods with a Poisson rate test and further examined any differences in harm categories using a Fisher's exact test. Results: The proportion of admissions with any dose‐related ADEs significantly decreased from 0.0082 to 0.0037 after the GPC (p = 0.04). The rate of dose‐related ADEs also declined from 2.5 per 1000 patient days to 1.1 per 1000 patient days (p = 0.001). Harm categories did not change significantly between time points (p = 0.30). Conclusions: Based on our list of relevant ICD‐10 codes, the GPC was associated with lower dose‐related ADEs for our selected medications among hospitalized older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of a study on how healthcare providers can understand the experiences of patients having serious illness conversation (SIC) about their end-of-life preferences. Topics mentioned include the impact of SIC on patients' relationship with their healthcare provider, a list of themes and representative quotes from thematic analysis, and some confusion of patients about the term, goal, when discussing their preferences for their care.

Background: The medication‐related death of a hospitalized older adult elucidated the inappropriateness of medication default doses in our electronic health record (EHR) for older adults. In response, we created and implemented the Geriatric Prescribing Context (GPC), an EHR‐based set of age‐specific dose and frequency defaults for patients 75 years and older, in July 2017. Inpatient medication orders aligned with GPC defaults and showed significant dose decreases at one year for nine of ten most commonly used medications. This follow‐up investigation examined GPC alignment of dose and frequency over the 42‐month time period after its implementation. Methods: Order data for the ten most commonly used medications at OHSU Hospital were collected retrospectively from July 2016 through December 2020. We used Statistical Process Control charts to assess the proportion of medication orders aligning with the GPC's recommendations. Signals of special cause were evaluated to identify time periods when shifts in process averages likely occurred and suspected shifts were assessed using binomial proportion tests. We used RStudio (RStudio, Inc., version 1.2.5001) and Microsoft Excel (2016) to perform statistical analyses and control charts, respectively. Results: The preimplementation phase of all medications displayed no special causes. After significant initial improvement in 2017, control charts revealed three different patterns of performance. Eight medications maintained the initial improvement with one medication displaying a second significant improvement at a later date. Two medications showed a subsequent decline in performance not statistically different from baseline. Overall, eight of the ten medications were prescribed at more age‐friendly doses and frequencies compared to baseline after 42 months. Conclusions: The GPC is an effective method to support safer prescribing for hospitalized older patients, but long‐term impacts may be medication‐specific. Further investigation is needed to ensure appropriate prescribing across drug classes and understand the GPC's impact on patient outcomes like adverse drug events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Hospitalized older adults are at risk of receiving potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) doses, driven in part by age‐independent dose defaults used by electronic health records (EHRs), leading providers to prescribe for older adults as they do for younger adults. We studied whether an automated EHR‐based medication support tool would reduce PIM dosing for hospitalized older adults. DESIGN Pre‐post study design. SETTING Tertiary care, level 1 trauma, academic medical center in Oregon. PARTICIPANTS Hospitalized adults 75 years and older in the inpatient, nonemergency setting prescribed medications with geriatric‐specific dose considerations. INTERVENTION An EHR‐based, automated set of evidence‐based, age‐specific dose and frequency defaults called the Geriatric Prescribing Context (GPC). MEASUREMENTS The process measure is percentage of orders consistent with geriatric dose recommendations, and outcome measures are average dose (AD) in milligrams and total daily dose (TDD) in milligrams in the 12 months before and after implementation. RESULTS: Use of recommended geriatric doses with the context improved for all 10 of the most commonly ordered medications. In the year after implementation, there was a trend toward decreasing TDD and AD across all drug classes. CONCLUSION: The GPC is a simple, elegant, and effective means to align prescribing practices with safety standards for older adults, improving prescribing safety for all. It works within the current prescriber workflow without triggering alert fatigue and requires minimal resources for development and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]