THE PRIME STUDY: PRESCRIBING OF INAPPROPRIATE MEDICATIONS IN THE ELDERLY

Beth Price and Sara Young

Background/Purpose
As the percentage of elderly Americans increases, it is important to know what medications are unsafe to prescribe in this population. The Beers and Modified Beers Lists identify medications that are discouraged in the elderly.
The knowledge and prescribing habits of Trident Family Medicine attendings and residents regarding the Beers and Modified Beers Lists will be explored.

Methods
Computerized medical records will be searched for active and new prescription of specific medications to elderly patients. Pre and post-intervention rates of prescriptions will be compared.
Interventions include seminars, notes in our prescription template, email reminders, pager messages and pre and post-intervention surveys.

Results
Over the last year, approximately 16 always inappropriate or rarely appropriate medications were prescribed each month in our practice. Attendings and residents also incorrectly identified the level of appropriateness of such medicines as much as 79% of the time.

Conclusions
There is significant room for improvement in the prescribing of medications on the Beers and Modified Beers List to our elderly patients. We hope that our interventions will result in more appropriate use of these medicines.