The health care industry underwent some major changes in 2013, and the upcoming year appears to have a number of transitions on the horizon as well. The Washington Post recently summarized a list from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that posited a number of top care initiatives for 2014, and for at-home senior care, a few will be more pressing than others.

For example, antibiotics have become a hot topic. From some patients overusing them and building up immunities to antibiotics to some people avoiding them altogether, antibiotics have lost some of their clout.

“There are now organisms out there that are resistant, potentially, to all the drugs that we have. And they’re spreading,” explained Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC. “We need to scale up the work that we’re doing at CDC to support doctors and hospitals to have more rational and more effective strategies for treating patients, so that we can treat infections that could be fatal but don’t waste the antibiotics that we need to preserve for ourselves, our kids and grandkids.”

If you or your loved one uses antibiotics as part of your care, it is imperative that the right care is provided in using the drug to maintain its potency.