Adverse Drug Events After Hospitalization—Are We Missing the Mark?

Abstract

Care transitions, from an acute care hospitalization to home, are an especially dangerous time for older adults and can affect patient outcomes, cause harm, and, when done poorly, be extremely costly.^1,2 Patients receive medications from new and different clinicians, which can lead to errors or discrepancies,³ including inappropriate discontinuation or unintentional inclusion of medications.⁴ Even if not prescribed erroneously, new medications have the potential to cause an adverse event. At least 20% of older adults will experience an adverse event in the weeks following hospitalization, with most being secondary to adverse drug-related events (ADEs). Of these, half are considered preventable or ameliorable.⁵ Identify all potential conflicts of interest that might be relevant to your comment. Conflicts of interest comprise financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including but not limited to employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speaker's bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. Err on the side of full disclosure. If you have no conflicts of interest, check "No potential conflicts of interest" in the box below. The information will be posted with your response. Not all submitted comments are published. Please see our commenting policy for details.