Care of older people

We are developing interventions designed to reduce the incidence of hospital acquired complications and improve overall quality of care in older medical inpatients.

Older people, particularly those who are frail, with multiple comorbidities, are more susceptible to healthcare-associated harm. They also experience a wider range of adverse events including the "geriatric syndromes" such as delirium, falls or functional decline. Our work aims to identify the risks that older people face in hospital, and to develop tools to measure the quality and safety of care in this population.

Projects

• Safety for older patients
• Prescribing for the elderly
• Prescribing in UK care homes

• Elderly care scoping review

Selected outputs

• A short video describing the Improving prescribing for the Elderly (ImPE) project
• Patient safety first weblink for project progress blog
• Loganathan M, Majeed A, Franklin BD (2010). A Systematic Review - The Association between Inappropriate Prescribing in Care Homes and Adverse Patient Outcomes Abstract presented at the 7th Health Services Research Europe conference, The Netherlands, 8-9 April.
• Loganathan M, Franklin BD, Majeed A (2009). Assessing appropriate prescribing in care homes: explicit versus implicit indicators. Abstract presented at the 3rd Annual Patient Safety Research Workshop, London, 16 December.