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Possible Medication Errors in Home Healthcare Patients
- Source :
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 49:719-724
- Publication Year :
- 2001
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2001.
-
Abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of possible medication errors in a population of older home healthcare patients according to expert panel objective criteria. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Two of the largest urban home healthcare agencies in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Home healthcare patients age 65 and older admitted to selected offices of these agencies between October 1996 and September 1998. MEASUREMENTS: We used two sets of consensus-based expert panel criteria to define possible medication errors. The Home Health Criteria identify patients with patterns of medication use and signs and symptoms that indicate sufficient likelihood of a medication-related problem to warrant reevaluating the patient. The Beers criteria identify medications that experts have deemed generally inappropriate for older patients. RESULTS: The 6,718 study subjects took a median of five drugs; 19% were taking nine or more medications. A possible medication error was identified for 19% of patients according to Home Health Criteria, 17% according to the Beers criteria, and 30% according to either. Possible errors increased linearly with number of medications taken. When patients taking one to three medications were compared with those taking nine or more drugs, the percentages with possible errors were, respectively, 10% and 32% for the Home Health Criteria, 8% and 32% for the Beers criteria, and 16% and 50% for both. CONCLUSION: Nearly one-third of the home healthcare patients surveyed had evidence of a potential medication problem or were taking a drug considered inappropriate for older people. More-effective methods are needed to improve medication use in this vulnerable population. J Am Geriatr Soc 49:719–724, 2001.
- Subjects :
- Male
Pediatrics
medicine.medical_specialty
Cross-sectional study
Population
Beers Criteria
Unnecessary Procedures
Risk Assessment
Medication error
Older patients
Risk Factors
Health care
Epidemiology
medicine
Humans
Medication Errors
education
Aged
Retrospective Studies
Aged, 80 and over
Risk Management
education.field_of_study
business.industry
Drug Utilization Review
Home Care Services
Los Angeles
Cross-Sectional Studies
Logistic Models
Family medicine
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Linear Models
Drug Therapy, Combination
Female
New York City
Guideline Adherence
Health Services Research
Geriatrics and Gerontology
business
Total Quality Management
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15325415 and 00028614
- Volume :
- 49
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a2fbb5f7aeb287faac2eb8055c2a4247