Medication Regimens in Older Home Care Patients

Medication regimens in older patients have been strongly associated with adverse events leading to hospitalization in ambulatory care settings. Despite a 29% hospitalization rate, to date, no research regarding medication regimens and readmission to the hospital has been completed in the home care setting. As part of a larger study evaluating predictors of readmission to the hospital from home care, descriptive analyses, chi-square tests, and t tests for independent samples were used in this secondary analysis to evaluate the Outcome and Assessment Information Set and medication records from 911 older patients admitted from the hospital to 15 home care agencies. Patients readmitted back to the hospital were older, sicker, and more cognitively impaired, and had complex medication regimens that included significant polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use. Nurses working with older adults need to be especially vigilant in monitoring medication regimens of patients to reduce opportunities for adverse drug events and subsequent hospitalization.