Preventable Medical Injuries in Older Patients
- Topics:
- Healthcare Services
- Source:
- American Medical Association
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Overview: Injuries associated with hospitalization are more common in older (>65 years) than in younger patients (< 65 years), and they may be more severe and more often preventable. The increasing age of the population magnifies the importance of this problem. This review first considers medical injuries in general and then reviews the literature for 6 categories: adverse drug events, falls, nosocomial infections, pressure sores, delirium, and surgical and perioperative complications. For each of these categories, older patients appear to be at higher risk, ranging from a 2.2-fold. For medications, various interventions have been successful, and fall prevention programs have been demonstrated to be effective in the nursing home and home.
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Format: PDF | Size: 217KB | Date: Oct 2000 | Pages: 12




