Drug Side Effects Blamed for 20 Percent of Hospital Readmissions
Jerry
http://www.naturalnews.com/z027866_drugs_side_effects.html
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Drug Side Effects Blamed for 20 Percent of Hospital Readmissions
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) One in every five patients readmitted to the hospital
within a year of an inpatient treatment ends up there because of an
adverse drug reaction, according to a study conducted by researchers
from the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS
Trust.
The research was presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in
Manchester and published in the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology.
"While medicines have lots of benefits, they can also have harmful
side-effects resulting in re-admission to hospital" researcher Emma
Davies said. "Managing this involves checking patients' medicines
while they are in hospital and regularly reviewing prescriptions in
primary care after patients are discharged."
Researchers examined data from approximately 1,000 patients who had
been admitted to a large Liverpool hospital. Among the 290 patients
who were readmitted within one year and for whom data were available,
21 percent had been readmitted at least partly because of an adverse
drug reaction.
The researchers defined an adverse drug reaction as "an appreciably
harmful or unpleasant reaction, resulting from an intervention related
to the use of a medicinal product, which predicts hazard from future
administration and warrants prevention or specific treatment, or
alteration of the dosage regimen, or withdrawal of the product."
After analyzing each case, the researchers concluded that 57 percent
of the adverse drug reactions probably or definitely could have been
prevented. The most common side effects resulting in readmission were
reactions to aspirin (prescribed to prevent heart attacks or strokes)
or diuretics (prescribed for the treatment of high blood pressure or
heart failure).
Not all drug reactions in the study caused hospital readmission, but
all required medical treatment. A total of 73.3 percent were
classified as low severity, necessitating only minor treatment; 24.7
percent were classified as moderate, requiring a moderate increase in
treatment but causing no lasting damage; 1.91 percent were classified
as severe, causing permanent harm, and 0.14 percent were catastrophic,
directly leading to a patient's death.
Sources for this story include: www.medicalnewstoday.com;
www.healthlinks-events-bpc2009.co.uk.
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