title: [Risk prescription associated to treatment at home of the elderly patient when admitted to the hospital].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence, the incidence of error, and the potential harm associated to particular prescriptions identified as a risk for medication error in the home treatment of elderly patients admitted to the hospital, as well as factors associated to their occurrence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Patients aged 65 years and older, being admitted to the hospital from the emergency department in the last quarter of 2009. The SPSS software version 15.0 was used for the statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  324 patients were included in the study. 1,176 (47%) prescriptions were identified as risk prescriptions in 91% of the patients. The most relevant risk prescription was prescription of high-risk medications (51.5% patients) that accounted for an error incidence of 88/100 patients with high-risk medications, being severe in 68 patients. Factors associated to the occurrence of moderate/high risk error due to risk prescriptions were suffering from a chronic respiratory illness, diabetes or polymedication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Actions aimed at decreasing the errors due to high risk medications should be prioritized.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Iniesta-Navalón
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Urbieta-Sanz
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Gascón-Cánovas
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rentero-Redondo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cabello Muriel
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Molina
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010343:Patient Admission; D019338:Polypharmacy; D018570:Risk Assessment