In the case of one patient who wasn't monitored as regularly as required, the intravenous tubing and bags had "change by" dates up to five days earlier than the date when inspectors toured the facility.
As Whittle explained to Straw's working group in 2000, this was simply because the documents are regularly required for legal identification.
He regularly requires care to help him with needs as basic as brushing his teeth.
As a general rule, a preventive medication should be started when a patient regularly requires acute treatment on more than 2 days a week.
The number of elderly people receiving excessive polypharmacy (ten or more concurrent prescription drugs dispensed regularly or as required), given as a percentage of the total elderly population, decreased marginally during Q1 2006 to Q1 2013, from 10.1 % to 10.0 % (−1.2 %) (Fig. 4).
The following were recorded: drugs used regularly or as required, drug doses, laboratory data (such as creatinine clearance and electrolytes), blood pressure and number of visits or re-admissions to hospital after discharge.
This will include prescription medicines, non-prescription medicines, vitamins and minerals and complementary and alternative medicines administered regularly and as required.
The most frequently used painkillers were paracetamol (93%), opioids (44%) and NSAID (41%) alone or in combination, regularly or as required.
The use of antimotility/antidiarrhoeal drugs was the most common initial intervention in most patients – 62.5% of all patients needed imodium either regularly or as required for a period.
However, the 79 patients who did not complete the study used more drugs (regularly and as required) than those patients who completed both parts both at admission (mean 7.0 vs 5.6 drugs per patient, respectively, p=0.01, 95% CI 0.33 to 2.55) and at discharge (mean 9.0 vs 7.6 drugs per patient, respectively, p=0.01, 95% CI 0.35 to 2.59).
