Thursday, February 04, 2010

Adverse events after hospital discharge of geriatric patients

This study was from Norway.

Results
118 patients (65 % female), with mean age 83.2 +/- 6.4 years participated. Median Barthel Index at discharge was 18 (interquartile range 16-19) and median Mini Mental Status Examination 24 (interquartile range 21-26). A total of 146 unwanted incidents were registered in 70 (59 %) of the patients. Most frequent were unwanted incidents related to drug prescription regime (32%), exchange of information in and between the GEMU and the primary health care (PHC) (25%) and service or help provided from the PHC (17%).

Conclusions
Despite a seemingly well-organised system for transition of patients from the GEMU to their homes, one or more unwanted incidents occurred in most patients during discharge or four weeks post discharge. The study has revealed areas of importance for improving transitional care of geriatric patients.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe all geriatric patients need a transition to a skilled nursing facility on discharge from hospital?

Only other choice is a lot more home health type interventions. If you have an at risk population that maybe shouldn't be at home in the first place, bad things will happen.

Michael Kirsch, M.D. said...

Not surprising. It's only in recent yrs that we are actually documenting incoming and d/c meds of patients. Hats off to the nurses (or perhaps to some diligent hospitalists!)who are the ones who really spend time with the patient at discharge, reviewing the medicines and giving follow-up instructions.