| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Quality of care for elderly residents in nursing homes and elderly people living at home
— controlled observational study | | Author(s) | Tom Fahey, Alan A Montgomery, James Barnes |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 326, no 7389, 15 March 2003 |
| Pages | pp 580-583 |
| Keywords | General practice ; Medical care ; Quality ; Residents [care homes] ; Nursing homes ; Living in the community ; Bristol. |
| Annotation | The quality of clinical care given to older people (age 65+) registered with three general practices in Bristol - 172 residents in nursing homes (cases) and 626 living at home (matched controls) - is measured against a range of standards. The overall standard of care was inadequate when judged against the quality standards, irrespective of where patients lived. The overall prescribing of beneficial drugs for some conditions was deficient, while there were also instances of potentially harmful prescribing of neuroleptic medication and laxatives in nursing homes. The proportion of those with heart disease or diabetes who had had their blood pressure measured in the past 2 years (heart disease) or past year (diabetes) was lower for those in nursing homes for heart disease (74% vs 96%) and for diabetes 62% vs 96%. Nursing home residents were less likely to have the appropriate diagnosis. Thus, the quality of medical care that older patients receive in one UK city, particularly those in nursing homes, is inadequate. The authors suggest that better co-ordinated care for these patients would avoid the problems of overuse of unnecessary or harmful drugs, underuse of beneficial drugs, and poor monitoring of chronic disease. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-0304004201 A |
| Classmark | L5: LK: 59: KX: LHB: K4: 8AB * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|