Polypharmacy in Healthcare; Presentation Outline
Introduction
One of the major issues that need to be addressed within the healthcare sector is polypharmacy. This problem is already existing, and it is expected to worsen in a few years as a demographic shift is gradually taking place in the U.S, whereby the number of the elderly is expected to rise. Statistics provided by the U.S Census Bureau show that by 2060, in every 4 Americans, one will be 65 years and older, with the number of those aged 95 expected to triple, thus adding half-million centenarians (). In a few years to come, the U.S will have more elders than youth. For instance, in 2016, there 49.2 million children, while the number of those aged 65 and above was 73.6 million. It is projected that by 2060 there will be 94.7 million elderly compared to 80.1 million individuals aged 18 and below. This shows that the demand for health care amongst the elderly is increasing, and in a few years to come, individuals aged 65 and above will be the major consumers of health care services. With this knowledge, it is important to adequately prepare how to handle the elderly within the healthcare sector by addressing some of the problems confronting this segment of the patient population. One of these problems is polypharmacy. Therefore, this presentation seeks to explore polypharmacy and how it can be addressed as part of facilitating the safe and effective transition of care for older adults in Ft Myers, Florida, USA.
Introduction
This part of the presentation will introduce polypharmacy with a focus on its definition as provided by other researchers or studies such as Rieckert et al. (2018), who has defined polypharmacy as instances whereby individuals aged 65 and above are taking five or more medications each day. In this part of the presentation, polypharmacy will be concisely discussed.
Factors promoting polypharmacy and its accompanying problems within the healthcare sector
In this section, the presentation will focus on factors that are providing a conducive environment for polypharmacy and some of its accompanying problems, as discussed by researchers in gerontology and health such as Golchin et al. (2015). It is important to highlight these factors, such as communication breakdown between healthcare providers handling the elderly in home-based care or nursing homes. This knowledge is important to healthcare providers as it makes them be aware of these factors and be vigilant to determine their presence when providing care to the elderly.
Strategies to Address Problems Associated with Polypharmacy
Polypharmacy issues are detrimental to the healthcare sector as they militate against the achievement of desirable outcomes in a timely fashion. This implies that to effectively facilitate care transitions for adults and provide them with the care they deserve. Healthcare providers should be knowledgeable about how to handle the identified polypharmacy issues. Therefore, this section of the presentation will discuss effective ways that can be employed in addressing emerging issues emanating from polypharmacy amongst the elderly.
Conclusion
In this section of the presentation, the main ideas from the introduction and main body will be summarized. Key ideas in the introduction, polypharmacy, and factors promoting its accompanied issues as well as how to counter the presented issue will be provided in summary.