Exploring diabetic care deficiencies and adverse events in home healthcare.
Little information is available about the strength of the relationship between home healthcare practices and the potential adverse events the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tracks through its uniform reporting system. We examined charts of patients who experienced a hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic emergent event to learn more about how home healthcare processes may contribute to an adverse event and to explore other factors that may contribute to a patient's health outcome. Implicit peer review, informed by an explicit review process, determined that 10% of the emergent care events were probably avoidable if home care had been optimal, 56% were potentially avoidable, and 34% were unavoidable.
McDonald
Margaret V
MV
Center for Home Care Policy and Research, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, New York City, USA. margaret.mcdonald@vnsny.org
King
Lori J
LJ
Moodie
Marcia
M
Feldman
Penny H
PH
D000368:Aged; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology