Warning, warning Will Robinson (for lost-in-space fans)

I saw a 79 year old male recently. When I asked his wife to bring out all his medication, she produced an industrial sized trash bag full of medications from the closet (a scenario familiar to all in health care).

The brief article below (“Too Many Pills for Aging Patients”) is an excellent example of over-medication concerns in the elderly, as well as “the cascade of deterioration” that often occurs in our elderly hospitalized patients.

It’s an easy read but makes some excellent points. 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/too-many-pills-for-aging-patien

I've also included the site to an article I wrote about 11 years ago in Medical Economics for a few laughs:

http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/memag/Primary+Care+Medicine/RR-in-a-hospital-Surely-you-jest/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/117911