Adverse Events Linked With Omissions of Care in Nursing Homes

Omissions of care in nursing home settings are associated with a number of adverse events, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

The nonsystematic review included literature on care omissions and related adverse events from PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO Academic Search Premier, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature up to January 2019. Articles were included if they were in English and pertained to “adult samples in nursing home settings or settings likely to include nursing homes as part of the continuum of care,” authors noted.

Researchers identified 2155 articles and evaluated 34 for thematic synthesis. They found the following:

• broad agreement that any delay or failure of care is an omission;

• diverse views on including consideration of risks or occurrence of adverse events within the definition;

• diverse approaches to including components of care delivery systems in the definition;

• recognition that care in nursing homes includes both clinical and psychosocial care; and

• awareness that insufficient or inadequate resources to meet care demands can cause omissions.

Additionally, they included 8385 articles on adverse events that were attributable to omissions. After reviewing 327 articles, they identified 19 adverse events caused by omissions.

“Definitions of omissions of care for nursing homes vary in scope and level of detail. Substantial evidence connects omissions of care with an array of adverse events in nursing home populations,” researchers concluded.

Reference:
Ogletree AM, Mangrum R, Harris Y, et al. Omissions of care in nursing home settings: A narrative review. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2020(5):604-614.e6. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2020.02.016