Guest Blog written by Amy Weisser, Case Manager of Heavenly Helpers
Here’s a statistic for you: according to the Institute of Medicine, medication errors kill over 100,000 people a year. Even worse news? The majority of these deaths are preventable!
People over the age of 65 consume 40% of all prescription medicines in the U.S. We’ve all heard by now of the “graying of America”, and the increase in the sheer number of seniors as the baby boom generation ages. That’s a lot of people depending on prescription medicines to stay healthy.
Advancing age, physical and mental frailty and increased use of prescription meds are all potent ingredients for a simmering stew of drug-related problems. The average senior takes between four and five prescription meds, and fills about thirteen prescriptions a year. And realize it takes only one medication to cause a problem!
The best prescription for avoiding these problems? Enter Paul Perniciaro, a registered, board-certified geriatric pharmacist whom I was fortunate enough to meet and chat with last week. Over iced coffee, he explained to me the fascinating field of geriatric pharmacy. Paul also talked about what he does in the daily business of running his two companies, Perniciaro Senior Care Consultants, Inc. and Consultant Pharmacy Services.
One of the first things Paul told me was that most seniors are taking too much prescription medicine, and that on the average, he probably could knock at least 10% off their regimen. (For a person taking 20 pills a day, that’s 730 less pills annually!) Most seniors have two or more medical specialists they see who are, unfortunately, not always aware of each other. Unaware of what meds the others are prescribing, the uninformed doctor could interpret an adverse drug reaction as a new medical condition, and prescribe yet another drug! Things can get complicated in a hurry…
With these sorts of scenarios floating in my head, I realized how desperately we need geriatric pharmacists like Mr. Perniciaro to sort through the chaos! As much as they would like to, dispensing pharmacists who work in busy pharmacies often don’t have the time to answer questions. Most geriatric pharmacists (also called consulting pharmacists) don’t work in a retail setting. In their consulting practice, they have the time to better address the needs and questions of their patients.
A geriatric pharmacist will perform a health and safety assessment in his client’s home. Routine tests such as taking blood pressure and blood-glucose monitoring can be done. Geriatric pharmacists can offer counseling on elderly nutrition, exercise, sleep issues, and give the home a safety check. One of Paul’s favorite stories involved an elderly lady and her plush, much-loved Elvis throw rug. Unfortunately, throw rugs have a tendency to cause senior falls. Paul’s prescription for this often-deadly danger? Dry clean the offender, and have it framed and hung!
Another point Paul brought up is the deadly statistic of falls and fall-related injuries among seniors. It has become a serious national health crisis. Over one third of adults aged 65 and over fall each year. In fact, 60% of all injury deaths among seniors were due to falls in 2006. This seems to be a particular problems in our state, as the death rate for falls in Missouri is 2005 was more then thiry percent higher than the national rate!
To this end, Mr. Perniciaro has worked for several years now with “Show Me Falls Free Missouri”, an action plan for preventing falls among older adults in the community. In September 2010, the “Show Me Falls Free Missouri” coalition is sponsoring a fall awareness day. We invite you to contact Heavenly Helpers Senior Home Care and join with us in helping to address this problem. And if you or a senior you know has medication, health or safety issues, we recommend you consult a geriatric pharmacist such as Paul Perniciaro, or one of his colleagues. Because yes, what you don’t know about your medications can hurt you!
The “Beers List”, developed by a geriatric pharmacist, is a list of all medications that are potentially harmful to seniors and recommends alternative ones. It is continually reviewed, updated and relied on extensively by doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, and nursing facilities. Send us your name and email and we will send you the fully updated “Beers List” !
