In a cohort of very old, hypertensive veterans, in subjects with controlled BPs, subjects with lower BP levels had a lower 5-year survival than those with higher BPs. This suggests that clinicians should use caution in their approach to BP lowering in this age group.

Background: Acute hospital readmission of older adults receiving hospice care is not aligned with hospice goals. Objective: To identify factors associated with 30-day readmission among older adults newly discharged to hospice. Design/Subjects: Medical record review of 59 patients, 19 readmitted within 30 days and 40 randomly selected controls not readmitted, from 206 patients newly discharged to home hospice care between February 1, 2005 and January 31, 2010. Measures/Analysis: Information was collected about hospital course, end-of-life planning, and posthospitalization follow-up. We calculated bivariate associations and developed a Cox Proportional Hazards model examining the relation between index admission characteristics and readmission. Results: Patients' mean age was 79.7 -8.4; 74.6% were female; 52.5% were black. Among those readmitted, 25% had received a palliative care consultation, compared to 47.1% of those not readmitted ( p = 0.06). Patients without a participating decision-maker involved in their hospice decision had 3.5 times the risk of readmission within 30 days, compared to those with (hazard ratio [HR] 3.53, confidence interval [CI] 0.97, 12.82). Patients who had one or more telephone contacts with their primary care physician (PCP) during week 1 after discharge had 2.4 times the readmission risk within 30 days, compared to patients with no such contacts during this period (HR 2.35, CI 0.9, 6.1). Conclusions: Readmission within 30 days of initial discharge to hospice is associated with several measures of care and care planning. Further study of these measures may identify opportunities for interventions to improve the hospital-to-hospice transition and to decrease hospital readmissions.

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As the population ages, it is important that graduating medical students be properly prepared to treat older adults, regardless of their chosen specialty. To this end, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the John A. Hartford Foundation convened a consensus conference to establish core competencies in geriatrics for all graduating medical students. An ambulatory geriatric clerkship for fourth-year medical students that successfully teaches 24 of the 26 AAMC core competencies using an interdisciplinary, team-based approach is reported here. Graduating students (N=158) reported that the clerkship was successful at teaching the core competencies, as evidenced by positive responses on the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire (GQ). More than three-quarters (80-93%) of students agreed or strongly agreed that they learned the seven geriatrics concepts asked about on the GQ, which cover 14 of the 26 core competencies. This successful model for a geriatrics clerkship can be used in many institutions to teach the core competencies and in any constellation of geriatric ambulatory care sites that are already available to the faculty.