Patients and caregivers often unaware of medication risks

A new survey of more than 2,700 older adults and caregivers finds that nearly 40% don’t know that certain medications can impact cognition. About 20% of patients — and 26% of caregivers — knew about some medications’ associations with long hospital stays. Caregivers are more likely to report mobility issues  — about half said the person they were caring for fell in the year before being surveyed, compared to 28% of patients who said the same.

As issues of elder care continue to gain more attention nationwide, the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of nursing homes finds that the vast majority of such facilities — regardless of whether they provide long- or short-term care — are of average quality. Only 420 facilities of the nearly 16,000 homes evaluated got top ratings for both kinds of care.