Abstract
There is increasing discussion of expanding service provision of primary and preventive services to home-based care. A driver of these discussions is the rapidly increasing number of people over the age of 65 years or-as one of the authors below calls it-the upcoming "silver tsunami." Research in this area is limited, but published literature describing the unmet needs of the frail elder population and those with limited mobility along with articles describing potential strategies to meet these needs is growing. In this column, four articles on this topic are profiled. The first article describes the public health challenges of addressing the needs of the aging population and provides information on approaches to expanding clinical preventive services. The second article focuses on a study that examined the relationship between quality indicators and survival. The third piece describes a qualitative study on facilitators and barriers to a specific preventive practice-colorectal cancer screening. The final article reviews the optimal skill set for a quality primary care provider and examines the potential role of those with a doctorate in nursing practice to help improve care for frail elders in their homes. For additional details, it is suggested the interested reader read the original articles.