Helping Patients with Medication Safety

Wednesday, Jul 06, 2022

When patients make the initial transition from the hospital to their homes, there is a high-risk window for that patient to be harmed by medication. This is known as adverse drug events (ADE) and typically affects older adults. Yan Xiao, UTA nursing professor, and a team of researchers are exploring solutions to help patients struggling with safe use of medications. Dr. Xiao, professor in the UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and his research colleagues in a newly published study identified risks for ADEs for older adults during their transitions from the hospital to their home. Their study, funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, also found that one significant common issue is providing confusing medication information to a patient – information that they or a caregiver will have to decipher on their own.

“The goal of our research was to inform ways to reduce medication-related patient harms,” Xiao said. “We provided recommendations in the paper in several areas to improve, including screenings for hazards at patient homes.”

The article, titled “Understanding Hazards for Adverse Drug Events Among Older Adults After Hospital Discharge: Insights From Frontline Care Professionals," was published in the Journal of Patient Safety.

In this collaborative effort, Xiao was joined by researchers from Baylor Scott & White Health and John Hopkins University with the aid of a medication safety expert from The Medical University of South Carolina. The team also recruited UTA pre-medical student, Aaliyah Smith, to code interview data.

“We were surprised by the knowledge of frontline hospital-based health care professionals in terms of challenges facing patients,” said Xiao. “In their interactions, hospital clinicians as a collective are familiar with issues in the hospital process and in patient’s home environment. We used a human factors framework to capture such knowledge, especially those associated with medications that have a high potential to cause harm. One example medication is insulin.”

To further this research, Xiao and the team are currently analyzing data collected from clinical charts and interviews conducted at patient homes. They hope this will provide a better understanding of what steps to take in order to keep patients safe from the risks posed.

As someone who conducts research on patient safety and teaches human factor courses, Xiao wants to use his talents as an educator to influence the current and future generations of undergraduate and graduate students to become involved in research as well. “We encourage UTA students to get involved in healthcare research currently conducted at CONHI,” Xiao shares.

– Written by Midori Hrinda, UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation