Abstract
Background The number of medication related hospital admissions and readmissions are increasing over the years due to the ageing population. Medication related hospital admissions and readmissions lead to decreased quality of life and high healthcare costs. Aim of the review To assess what is currently known about medication related hospital admissions, medication related hospital readmissions, their risk factors, and possible interventions which reduce medication related hospital readmissions. Method We searched PubMed for articles about the topic medication related hospital admissions and readmissions. Overall 54 studies were selected for the overview of literature. Results Between the different selected studies there was much heterogeneity in definitions for medication related admission and readmissions, in study population and the way studies were performed. Multiple risk factors are found in the studies for example: polypharmacy, comorbidities, therapy non adherence, cognitive impairment, depending living situation, high risk medications and higher age. Different interventions are studied to reduce the number of medication related readmission, some of these interventions may reduce the readmissions like the participation of a pharmacist, education programmes and transition-of-care interventions and the use of digital assistance in the form of Clinical Decision Support Systems. However the methods and the results of these interventions show heterogeneity in the different researches. Conclusion There is much heterogeneity in incidence and definitions for both medication related hospital admissions and readmissions. Some risk factors are known for medication related admissions and readmissions such as polypharmacy, older age and additional diseases. Known interventions that could possibly lead to a decrease in medication related hospital readmissions are spare being the involvement of a pharmacist, education programs and transition-care interventions the most mentioned ones although controversial results have been reported. More research is needed to gather more information on this topic.
Highlights
Thousands of medical interventions are performed each day in healthcare to improve the health status of our patients
To give an overview on what is currently known about medication related hospital admissions, medication related hospital readmissions, their risk factors, and possible interventions which reduce medication related hospital readmissions
Previous studies have shown that the use of CDDS has an additional value for the manual medication review [59, 61]. The aim of this literature overview was to give an overview on what currently is known about medication related hospital admissions, medication related hospital readmissions, their risk factors, and possible interventions which reduce medication related hospital readmissions
Summary
Thousands of medical interventions are performed each day in healthcare to improve the health status of our patients. Inadequate medication management and polypharmacy are important risk factors for adverse drug events and drug-drug interactions and frequently lead to hospital admissions and hospital readmissions and other undesirable consequences such as increased morbidity, decreased selfreliance and even death [4,5,6,7]. The number of acute and medication related hospital admissions is increasing over the years due to the ageing population [8]. Less research is performed in the latter category Both admissions and readmissions account for decreased quality of life and high healthcare costs [9, 10]. The number of medication related hospital admissions and readmissions are increasing over the years due to the ageing population. Medication related hospital admissions and readmissions lead to decreased quality of life and high healthcare costs. Overall 54 studies were selected for the overview of literature
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