Content design and validation of a Standard Operating Procedure to provide pharmacotherapy follow-up for the elderly in Cuba

Incorporating methodological tools that allow uniform and standardized development from the clinical pharmacy services to the Pharmaceutical Care practice, is nowadays a necessity. Considering the importance of pharmaceutical care provision to elderly patients, this manuscript introduces the design and content validation of a standard operating procedure to provide pharmacotherapy follow-up to the elderly in nursing homes in Cuba. The procedure was designed based on a deep analysis of documents relative to experiences focused on holistic care to elderly patients, criteria for the identification and assessment of potentially inappropriate prescriptions and the relationship between functional geriatric evaluation and the use of drugs. The content validation was conducted by a panel of experts, using the Delphi methodology, through two working sessions. In addition, we used Likert-type scale to evaluate the procedure by experts, in line with the indicators described. In general, the criteria issued by the experts were very appropriate and allowed us to modify, add or keep several elements of the instrument for the final version. The findings demonstrated that the instrument can be used at any level of health care

Drug use in the elderly, a challenge to confront. Report of a case

Los adultos mayores son especialmente vulnerables a los efectos adversos de medicamentos por lo que es necesario realizar intervenciones para su reducción. Es un hecho que los mejores resultados en salud se obtienen cuando los servicios de salud están organizados en torno a las necesidades y expectativas de salud de las personas, no en torno a las enfermedades. En este sentido se presenta un caso y la estrategia de seguimiento para minimizar la incidencia de los problemas relacionados con medicamentos en un paciente con comorbilidades y polifarmacia.The elderly are specially vulnerable to the adverse effects of medications for what is necessary to carry out interventions for their reduction. It is a fact that the best results in health are obtained when the services of health are organized around the necessities and expectations of people's health, not around the illnesses. In this sense it is presented a case and the pursuit strategy to minimize the incidence of the problems related with medications in a patient with comorbidities and polypharmacy