SAFEMED: Characterizing Opioid-Related Adverse Events in Older Adults After Hospital Discharge
HSS Investigators: Alok Kapoor, Jerry Gurwitz
Funding Agency: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Status: Ongoing
Project Overview: Medications are a major cause of adverse events both during hospitalization and after discharge, and older patients are particularly susceptible to such events. Opioids are consistently identified as one of the top medication classes to cause adverse drug events (ADEs), and are prescribed to millions of older adults after hospital discharge each year. Although prior studies have examined the incidence and consequences of post-discharge ADEs globally, these studies did not focus on older adults and did not investigate opioid-related adverse event rates specifically. A better understanding of the patient- and prescribing-related factors that place patients at highest risk for opioid-related post-discharge ADEs is vital to inform improvements in healthcare systems to reduce the incidence and consequences of these potentially devastating events for older adults. Overall, our study aims to gather a better understanding of the specific nature of opioid-related patient harm after hospital discharge, identify factors that place patients at highest risk for such harm, and inform development of improvements in healthcare systems to reduce the incidence and consequences of these potentially devastating events for older adults.