Health care providers receive little training about how to work with demented patients who have lost language and processing skills. We quantified the impact of a dementia communication skills curriculum on health professions students' attitudes and...
Medical schools have utilized a number of different curricular models to teach geriatric medicine. One model is the Senior Mentoring Program (SMP) in which volunteer seniors are paired with medical students to facilitate teaching of geriatric...
Traditionally, when long-term care (LTC) residents in Ontario, Canada require intravenous antibiotics, they have been transferred to hospital for this treatment. Hospital is not always the ideal location for the elderly to receive treatment as it...
Inadequately managed acute pain can lead to hospital readmissions for skilled nursing facility (SNF) patients. This 2 month study was based on private, telephonic interviews conducted in patients of 2 Health Dimensions Group (HDG) managed SNFs to...
Bladder perforation associated with a urinary catheter is a rare, but potentially fatal condition. This report describes a 92 year old long term care resident who was found to have bladder perforation after insertion of Foley catheter for urinary...
Septicemia represents 13.4% of readmission from post acute and long term care (PALTC). Increasing pressure to limit readmissions requires all providers in PALTC to be aware of opportunities to treat patients who develop acute problems safely and...
Urinary incontinence (UI) and retention (UR) can impact patient comfort and quality of life, and are rare adverse drug effects (ADEs) of antipsychotic agents. UI occurs with most typical antipsychotics in various dosages, even without pre-existing...
Past studies have reported inadequate dental care in elderly nursing home residents. Dental cavities, gum diseases, and cracked teeth go unaddressed. Periodontal disease contributes to bacterial pneumonia from anaerobes. This issue is even more...
Unintentional weight loss signals underlying illness. 27% of frail elders experience involuntary weight loss, an association with morbidity and mortality. In setting of comorbidities requiring several medications, the etiology of unintentional...
Communication with a patient in severe stages of dementia, particularly with Alzheimer’s type dementia might be a challenge. There are many communication strategies and techniques recommended by the Alzheimer’s Association. Among them the patient-...
