Medication mistakes are among the most common complications for discharged patients, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of inspection records.
The analysis shows such errors are also frequently missed by home health agencies.
Between January 2010 and July 2015, the analysis found, inspectors identified 3,016 home health agencies — nearly a quarter of all those examined by Medicare — that had inadequately reviewed or tracked medications for new patients. According to Kaiser Health News, nurses sometimes didn't realize patients were taking potentially dangerous combinations of drugs, risking abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding, kidney damage and seizures.
This trend is partly attributed to the lack of organization and communication among the various providers patients may use after discharge, including pharmacies, urgent care clinics and numerous specialists.
Kaiser Health News noted that none of the $30 billion that Congress appropriated to help shift healthcare to EHRs went to nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities or providers working with individuals in their homes, making communication more difficult.
Problems that lead to medication errors post-discharge sometimes begin in the hospital setting. Federal data show less than 50 percent of patients confidently understood the instructions of how to care for themselves after discharge, according to Kaiser Health News.
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