Resources for the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment based
Proactive and Personalised Primary Care of the Elderly
Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment
Medical Records
Most Electronic Medical Record systems in GP practice are structured for SOAP annotation.
This focus on one problem at a time is inadequate in the elderly who present with multiple co-morbidities.
The Problem Oriented Medical Record is more appropriate to the care of the Elderly in that it provides
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a data base
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problem list
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plan of action
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progress notes
The GP's record keeping systems may need to be revised and/and or upgraded to accomodate the easy retrieval and centralised availability of data necessary for the CGA itself and the subsequent interventions, monitoring and reviews
Paper templates are currently available for the :
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Brief CGA (Brief CGA Template)
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Full CGA (AGEDAT-1)
These paper templates may be utilised by the GP to customise his own EMR to incorporate POMR style annotations for the elderly patients.
The advantages of CGA based record-keeping include :
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centralised location of data required for personalised care of the frail and aged individual (e.g. personal data and preferences, caregiver details, social circumstances, etc.)
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accessibility at a glance to crucial data required for the informed clinical decision making process (e.g. medical and surgical history, key lab and imaging results, etc.)
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easily identifiable and updatable parameters for periodic monitoring (e.g. four monthly medication review, periodic nutritional assessment, etc.)
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facilitation of allocation of tasks to various health care or MDT team members, and pooling of results for mutual reference
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ease of compilation of detailed reports and referral letters
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facilitation of quality controls, statistical evaluations, medicolegal safeguarding
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uniformity of record keeping in GP surgery, community and residential care settings
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streamlining of tasks, avoidance of duplication, and professional time saving as a consequence of all advantages listed above
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Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment