Acceptability of oral liquid pharmaceutical products in older adults: palatability and swallowability issues.

Background: In institutional care, oral liquid pharmaceutical products are widely prescribed for older patients, especially for those with swallowing disorders. As medicines acceptability is a key factor for compliance in the older population, this study investigated the acceptability of oral liquid pharmaceutical products in this targeted population.

Methods: An observational, multicenter, prospective study was conducted in eight geriatric hospitals and eight nursing homes in France.

Assessing the benefit of the 72-hour antibiotic therapy reassessment documentation.

Objectives: To assess the documentation of the 72-hour antibiotic therapy reassessment in medical records.

Methods: One-day prevalence evaluation of curative antibiotic therapies≥72hours. The documentation of the reassessment was defined according to three criteria: (1) "clear" documentation (clinical or microbiological comment associated with a comment on the need to adjust the antibiotic therapy or on the lack of need); (2) "tacit" documentation (only based on a clinical or microbiological comment); (3) no documentation.

A Decision Support Tool Facilitating Medicine Design for Optimal Acceptability in The Older Population.

Purpose: Medicine acceptability, which is of the utmost importance for vulnerable patients' adherence, is driven by both user and product characteristics. Herein, a novel multivariate approach integrating the many aspects of acceptability is used to discriminate positively and negatively accepted medicines in the older population.

Methods: An observational study was carried out in eight hospitals and eight nursing homes to collect a large set of real-life data on medicines uses in older patients (≥65 years).

Brain natriuretic peptide usefulness in very elderly dyspnoeic patients: the BED study.

Aims: To evaluate the interest of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) for heart failure (HF) diagnosis in very old patients.

Methods And Results: A total of 383 patients aged 80 years or older, hospitalized in geriatrics care for dyspnoea, had a BNP measurement at the acute phase. Independent cardiologists blinded to BNP values classified the patients into cardiac vs.

Long-term control of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium at the scale of a large multihospital institution: a seven-year experience.

Repeated outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) occurred between 2004 and 2010 in Assistance Publique--Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), a 23,000-bed multi-hospital institution. From August 2004 to December 2005, the French guidelines for preventing cross-transmission of multiresistant bacteria were applied. Because the number of VRE cases continued to increase, an institutional control programme was implemented from January 2006 onwards: it foresees stopping transfer of VRE and contact patients, separating VRE and contact patients in distinct cohorts, intervention of a central infection control team to support local teams, and quick application of measures as soon as first VRE cases are identified.