Medication Management — Because More Medications Means More Risk, Not More Protection
Expert medication review, optimization, and deprescribing for older adults — at our Lansdowne and Reston locations.
The average older adult takes five or more prescription medications. Many take ten or more. Each additional medication adds another layer of complexity — another potential interaction, another side effect risk, another variable affecting how you feel, think, move, and sleep. In older adults, medications are one of the leading causes of falls, cognitive changes, hospitalizations, and declining quality of life. And yet most practices simply renew prescriptions year after year without ever stepping back to ask the most important question — does this patient still need all of this?
At VPMC, medication management is one of the most impactful services we provide for our geriatric patients. We approach it not as a clerical task but as a clinical priority that deserves the same level of attention as any diagnosis or treatment decision.
Every geriatric patient at VPMC receives a comprehensive annual medication reconciliation — a thorough review of every prescription medication, over-the-counter drug, vitamin, and supplement you take. We evaluate each one for continued necessity, appropriate dosing for your age and kidney function, potential interactions with other medications, and side effects that may be quietly affecting your health without an obvious connection. A sleeping pill that seemed reasonable at 55 may be contributing to falls, confusion, and daytime fatigue at 75. A blood pressure medication that was appropriate for a younger patient may be causing dangerous drops in pressure when you stand up. These connections matter, and finding them requires time and expertise.
We use established clinical guidelines — including the Beers Criteria, which identifies medications that carry elevated risk specifically for older adults — to flag and address potentially inappropriate prescriptions. When a medication is no longer needed, or when its risks outweigh its benefits, we work with you to safely taper and discontinue it. Deprescribing — the intentional, supervised reduction of medications — is one of the most underutilized and highest-impact interventions in geriatric care, and it is something our care team does regularly and confidently.
For patients managing multiple chronic conditions across multiple specialists, medication lists can grow in ways that no single prescriber fully tracks. VPMC serves as the central coordinator — ensuring that every medication prescribed by every specialist is appropriate in the context of your complete health picture, and that nothing is slipping through the cracks.
We also invest time in patient and family education — making sure you understand what each medication does, why you’re taking it, how to take it correctly, and what side effects to watch for. Because a medication that isn’t understood is a medication that isn’t taken consistently, and inconsistency creates its own risks.
