An intervention on discharge polypharmacy.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if providing a way to cancel pre-admission prescriptions would reduce the number of active drug prescriptions (RXs) at discharge.


METHODS
A randomized non-blinded clinical trial.


METHODS
Inpatient acute medical service of a university affiliated Veterans Administration medical center.


METHODS
Twelve medicine ward teams were randomized to control and intervention groups. Patients controlled had been discharged from these teams during 12 weeks and were receiving outpatient medications from this facility at hospital admission; control = 180, intervention = 168.


METHODS
At discharge, intervention teams used a computer-generated drug list to cancel or renew previous outpatient RXs or to prescribe new medications. Control teams could not cancel outpatient drugs and wrote all medications on individual prescriptions.


METHODS
The difference between admission and discharge RXs.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in patients' age, sex, race, Charlson Index (CI), or LOS between patient groups at discharge. The intervention group had fewer RXs on admission (5.4 vs 6.2, P < .05) and at discharge was not significantly different (2.9 vs 2.9, P = .87) from the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
Providing a method for canceling pre-admission medications did not reduce the number of RXs at discharge. Further research is needed to evaluate the appropriateness of the large increase in RXs from admission to discharge for patients in acute hospital settings.
Smith
D M
DM
Division of General Medicine, Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN 46204, USA.
Cox
M R
MR
Brizendine
E J
EJ
Hui
S L
SL
Freedman
J A
JA
Martin
D K
DK
murray
M D
MD
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003625:Data Collection; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010351:Patient Discharge