Incidence of adverse events among elderly inpatients with mental disorders

Abstract

Objective To analyze the characteristics of adverse events among elderly inpatients with mental disorders so as to provide a basis for formulating targeted nursing intervention. Methods From 2014 to 30th June 2018, a retrospective analysis was used to analyze the adverse events at a Class Ⅲ Grade A mental health specialized hospital. We compared the adverse events between elderly (≥60 years old) patients with mental disorders and non-elderly (<60 years old) inpatients without mental disorders. Results From 2014 to 30th June 2018, there were 217 adverse events, in which 111 fell or fell off bed, 75 were accidents, 11 were pressure ulcers, 4 medication errors and 1 were pipeline slippage. The incidence of adverse events among elderly inpatients with mental disorders was 1.18% higher than that (0.38%) among non-elderly in patients without mental disorders. Among elderly patients, the severity of adverse events was (2.71±1.14) . In the patients who had been through adverse events, there were statistical differences in age, disease diagnosis, nursing levels, scores of activities of daily living (ADLs) on admission, hospital stay and self-care ability between elderly and non-elderly inpatients with mental disorders (P<0.05) . There was statistical difference in the incidences of accidents between elderly and non-elderly patients (χ2=10.694, P=0.030) . Conclusions Falling is an adverse event with high incidence. It has special characteristics among patients in mental health department there there are many accidents, and the situation is complex with great varieties. The management of reported accidents should be improved. We should also pay attention to the consistency in the scores and judgment criteria of ADL among nurses, and make incident reporting system standardized so as to provide a firm basis for improving quality of medical management by analyzing and summarizing. Key words: Aged; Mental disorders; Inpatients; Adverse events