Clinical trial NCT02712268: Intervention to Improve Prescribing in Elderly Patients
Official title: Intervention to Improve Appropriate Prescribing and Reduce Polypharmacy in Elderly Patients Admitted to an Internal Medicine Unit
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Elderly Internal Medicine Patients
Keywords: Polypharmacy
Clinical decision-making
Lead sponsor: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-03-18
Enrollment: 450
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study tested the efficacy of an easy-to-use checklist aimed at supporting the therapeutic reasoning of physicians in order to reduce inappropriate prescribing and polypharmacy in elderly adults admitted to an internal medicine unit.

Detailed description: Background: Polypharmacy and inappropriate medication prescriptions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Most interventions proposed to improve appropriate prescribing are time and resource intensive and therefore hardly applicable in daily clinical practice.

Objective: To test the efficacy of an easy-to-use checklist aimed at supporting the therapeutic reasoning of physicians in order to reduce inappropriate prescribing and polypharmacy.

Design: single-center, interventional, quasi-experimental before-after study. Patients: Consecutive patients aged ≥65 years, hospitalized in the division of internal medicine of a Swiss secondary-level hospital from September to November 2012 (control group, N=450) and from September to November 2013 (intervention group, N=450).

Intervention: Introduction of a 5-point checklist to be used by all physicians on the internal medicine wards.

Main Measures: The proportion of patients with prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) at discharge, according to Screening tool of older people's prescriptions (STOPP) criteria, and the number of prescribed medications at discharge, before and after the introduction of the checklist. Secondary outcomes were the prevalence of polypharmacy (≥ 5 drugs) and hyperpolypharmacy (≥ 10 drugs), and the prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing omissions (PPOs) according to START criteria.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Consecutive patients aged ≥65 years,
* patients hospitalized in the division of internal medicine of a Swiss secondary-level hospital from September to November 2012 (control group, N=450) and from September to November 2013 (intervention group, N=450).

Exclusion Criteria:

* none

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in the proportion of patients prescribed potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) at discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Change in the number of prescribed medications at discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of prescribed drugs at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Prevalence of polypharmacy at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Prevalence of hyperpolypharmacy at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing omissions (PPO) at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Number of patients prescribed NSAID at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Rate (%) of inappropriate prescriptions of NSAID at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Number of patients prescribed proton pump inhibitors at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Rate (%) of inappropriate prescriptions of proton pump inhibitors at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Number of patients prescribed systemic corticosteroids at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Rate (%) of inappropriate prescriptions of systemic corticosteroids at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Number of patients prescribed metamizole at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: Rate (%) of inappropriate prescriptions of metamizole at admission and discharge
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: In-Hospital mortality rate
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
measure: All-cause re-hospitalization rate
timeFrame: In the 3 months after introduction of the checklist (Sept.-Nov. 2013, intervention group) and in 3 months (Sept.-Nov. 2012) one year before the introduction of the checklist (control group)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
name: Stefano Bassetti, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: