Management of heart failure in older adults

The incidence of heart failure in the United States is approaching 5 million patients with approximately 550,000 new cases identified each year. In addition, the prevalence of heart failure increases with age. Heart failure as a common chronic syndrome in the geriatric population challenges healthcare providers in the provision of patient care and improvement of patient outcomes. The purposes of this article are to (1) describe medication use and its associated challenges and (2) discuss hospitalization and outpatient management for older adults with heart failure with the goal of improving patient outcomes.