Refining the Definition of Polypharmacy and Its Link to Disability in Older Adults: Conceptualizing Necessary Polypharmacy, Unnecessary Polypharmacy, and Polypharmacy of Unclear Benefit.

The term polypharmacy in older adults is generally used in a pejorative context in the medical literature. Because of its link to geriatric syndromes and disability, the avoidance of polypharmacy is usually recommended in older adults as a strategy to optimize functional status. However, there are many polypharmacy regimens based on high-quality trials that clearly reduce the risk of disability in older adults.

Violence against home care providers--stop it before it starts.

Prevention of patient violence and staff injuries is critical in home care, where clinicians work alone in the community in patients' residences and do not have other health care providers or security personnel on site when patients escalate toward violent behavior.