Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content
Study
Classic

Emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in older Americans.

Budnitz DS, Lovegrove MC, Shehab N, et al. Emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in older Americans. New Engl J Med. 2011;365(21):2002-2012. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1103053.

Save
Print
December 7, 2011
Budnitz DS, Lovegrove MC, Shehab N, et al. New Engl J Med. 2011;365(21):2002-2012.
View more articles from the same authors.

Partnership for Patients set an ambitious goal to reduce preventable readmissions by 20% in 2013. Adverse drug events contribute significantly to undesired outcomes and provide an ongoing area for prevention strategies. This study used a national surveillance database and examined nearly 100,000 emergency hospitalizations attributed to adverse drug events in elderly patients between 2007 and 2009. Investigators found that nearly half the hospitalizations were in adults older than 80 years and two-thirds were due to unintentional overdoses. The most common medications implicated were warfarin, insulin, oral antiplatelet agents, and oral hypoglycemic agents. The authors suggest that targeted strategies to minimize risk associated with these high-risk medications may reduce preventable hospitalizations in older adults.

Save
Print
Cite
Citation

Budnitz DS, Lovegrove MC, Shehab N, et al. Emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in older Americans. New Engl J Med. 2011;365(21):2002-2012. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1103053.

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)
Related Resources