Background: Medication discrepancies, defined as unexplained variations among drug regimens at care transitions, are common. Some are unintended and cause reconciliation errors that are potentially detrimental for patients. Objective: To determine the prevalence of medication discrepancies and reconciliation errors at admission and discharge in hospitalized patients and explore risk factors for reconciliation errors and their potential clinical impact. Methods: An observational prospective study was conducted at a general teaching hospital. Patients who were admitted to the internal medicine service and were receiving chronic preadmission treatment were included in the study. Preadmission treatment was compared with the treatment prescribed on admission (first 48 hours) and at hospital discharge, and discrepancies and reconciliation errors were identified. The primary endpoint was the presence of reconciliation errors at admission and/or discharge. Potential risk factors (patient-, medication-, and system-related) for reconciliation errors were analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression model. Results: Of the 120 patients enrolled in the study between April and August 2009, 109 (90.8%) showed 513 discrepancies. The prevalence of patients with reconciliation errors was 20.8% (95% CI 13.6 to 28.1). Intended medication discrepancies were more frequent at admission (96.6%) than at discharge (75.5%), while reconciliation errors were more frequent at discharge (24.5%) than at admission (3.4%). The prevalence ratio (admission vs discharge) was 2.4 (95% CI 1.9 to 3.0) for discrepancies and 0.65 (95% CI 0.32 to 1.32) for reconciliation errors. The logistic regression analysis revealed an association between the number of discrepancies at admission (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.44) and age (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.10) and an increased risk of reconciliation errors. Conclusions: Medication reconciliation strategies should focus primarily on avoiding errors at discharge. Since medication discrepancies at admission may predispose patients to reconciliation errors, early detection of such discrepancies would logically reduce the risk of reconciliation errors. Medication reconciliation programs must implement a process for gathering accurate preadmission drug histories and must submit this information to a critical assessment of patients' needs.

Aim: The present study aimed both to gain knowledge on the distinctive clinical characteristics of older adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), in comparison with those of younger patients, and to identify risk factors for mortality.Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out of patients consecutively admitted to Doctor Peset University Hospital, Valencia (Spain) for COVID‐19 from 11 March to 28 April 2020. Every case was diagnosed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or by serology test to detect antibodies. Demographic details, clinical characteristics, laboratory findings on admission and complications of each case were collected from electronic medical records.Results: The dataset comprised 340 patients. Of them, 152 (44.6%) were aged >70 years. Comorbidities were more common in the older groups. Confusion was more common in older adults, whereas typical symptoms of COVID‐19, such as fever, cough and myalgia, were less common. Oxygen saturation ≤93% on room air, neutrophilia, D‐dimer >0.5 μg/mL, creatinine >1.5 mg/dL, lactate dehydrogenase ≥250 U/L and elevation of creatine kinase were higher in the older adult groups.Complications during hospitalization, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (53.3% vs 33.2%, P < 0.001), acute kidney injury (11.8% vs 5.3%; P = 0.030) and mortality (28.9% vs 6.5%; P < 0.001) were more common in patients aged >70 years. Oxygen saturation ≤93% on room air on admission was a predictor of mortality (odds ratio 11.65, 95% confidence interval 3.26–41.66, P < 0.001) in patients aged >70 years.Conclusions: Older adults with COVID‐19 have more atypical presentation, more complications and higher mortality. Oxygen saturation ≤93% on room air on admission is a predictive factor of death. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 60–65.