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Hospital Readmissions within 30-days Associated with Adverse Drug Events
about 2 weeks ago - No comments
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) may want to look a little deeper as to why many of their hospital patients who recently discharged are coming back within 30-days. An article in Annals of Internal Medicine, The Incidence and Severity of Adverse Events Affecting Patients after Discharge from the Hospital, Alan Forster, MD, et al, 2003;138:161-167, stated More >
Emergency Hospitalizations for Adverse Drug Events in Older Americans
about 2 months ago - No comments
A study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, by Dr. Daniel Budnitz, et al, states that there are just a few drugs commonly used in older adults that lead to emergency hospitalizations, those drugs being: warfarin (Coumadin), insulin, oral antiplatelets and oral hypoglycemic agents like glipizide and glyburide. These findings are similar More >
Adverse Drug Event Causation: A Review of the Literature
about 2 months ago - No comments
I have reviewed quite a few studies related to the causative factors of adverse drug events (ADEs) in older adults in order to learn where to apply my efforts in preventing them from happening in those I serve. But I never really put them together into one picture to get a better idea of the More >
Adverse Drug Events in the Eldery: An Ongoing Problem
about 3 months ago - No comments
A commentary published in Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy (JMCP); Sept. 2009, Vol. 15, No 7, authored by Charnelda Gray, PharamD, BCPS, and Carole Gardner, MD, reviewed the evidence as to why ADEs remain a very real problem in older adults. I like this article for two reasons, the first because I agree with it, More >
United Way of Dane County Launches “Safe & Healthy Aging Initiative”
about 5 months ago - No comments
On Sept. 1, 2011, United Way of Dane County (UWDC) launched its Safe & Healthy Aging Initiative at Promega Corp. in Fitchburg, WI. The initiative is intended to reduce the rate of falls and adverse drug events by 15% by the year 2015. The initiative was started two years ago by UWDC, in collaboration with More >
When Clinical Trials Mean Nothing To Elders
about 6 months ago - No comments
From a NY Times post by Paula Span, titled Clinical Trials Neglect the Elderly, a surprising number of studies exclude participants over a certain age, thereby excluding older adults. Dr. Ken Covinsky is quoted as saying “In taking care of older patients, we’re often guessing the best therapy on insufficient data.” There’s actually been an More >
NSAIDs & Antidepressants: Dangerous Mix?
about 6 months ago - No comments
In the previous post I commented on recent findings in the British Medical Journal that concluded, certain classes of antidepressants were associated with a higher risk of harms, whether it be gastrointestinal bleeding, stroke, falls and other adverse outcomes. The class of drugs most commonly used in older adults and long believed to be the More >
Fatal cocktail of common drugs putting elderly at risk
about 6 months ago - No comments
Results of a study in Great Britain were reviewed in the Telegraph in June of this year, showing that older adults who took a combination of commonly used drugs led to higher mortality rates. The suggested increased risk of mortality was the overall drug burden or anticholinergic drug burden. Many medications have a property, called More >
Serotonin Syndrome: Rare Event or Common Occurrence?
about 8 months ago - No comments
Drug interactions are a significant contributor to the incidence of adverse drug events, with one reference suggesting that 50% of all ADEs are from drug interactions. One such interaction, which occurs between several classes of medications, results in a constellation of symptoms that are bundled into one syndrome called “serotonin syndrome”. Serotonin syndrome may present More >
Seeking “Expert” Advice
about 9 months ago - 1 comment
A recent NY Times article, written by physician Dr. Kent Septkowicz, is a nice story about how we rely upon “experts” to solve our problems. To start, he is seeking the “expert” to fix his dishwasher yet he runs into one “expert” after another who fails to listen to his story of what he thinks More >
