START (screening tool to alert doctors to the right treatment)--an evidence-based screening tool to detect prescribing omissions in elderly patients.
Affiliation
Cork University Hospital, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Ireland., pat_barry@eircom.netIssue Date
2012-02-03T15:16:33ZMeSH
Age FactorsAged
Aged, 80 and over
Atherosclerosis/drug therapy
Atrial Fibrillation/drug therapy
Calcium/administration & dosage/economics/therapeutic use
Dietary Supplements
Evidence-Based Medicine/*methods
Guideline Adherence/*statistics & numerical data
Humans
Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors/economics/therapeutic use
Mass Screening/*methods
Osteoporosis/drug therapy
Physician's Practice Patterns/*statistics & numerical data
Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors/economics/therapeutic use
Prevalence
Vascular Diseases/drug therapy
Warfarin/economics/therapeutic use
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Show full item recordCitation
Age Ageing. 2007 Nov;36(6):632-8. Epub 2007 Sep 19.Journal
Age and ageingDOI
10.1093/ageing/afm118PubMed ID
17881418Abstract
BACKGROUND: Inappropriate prescribing encompasses acts of commission i.e. giving drugs that are contraindicated or unsuitable, and acts of omission i.e. failure to prescribe drugs when indicated due to ignorance of evidence base or other irrational basis e.g. ageism. There are considerable published data on the prevalence of inappropriate prescribing; however, there are no recent published data on the prevalence of acts of omission. The aim of this study was to calculate the prevalence of acts of prescribing omission in a population of consecutively hospitalised elderly people. METHODS: A screening tool (screening tool to alert doctors to the right treatment acronym, START), devised from evidence-based prescribing indicators and arranged according to physiological systems was prepared and validated for identifying prescribing omissions in older adults. Data on active medical problems and prescribed medicines were collected in 600 consecutive elderly patients admitted from the community with acute illness to a teaching hospital. On identification of an omitted medication, the patient's medical records were studied to look for a valid reason for the prescribing omission. RESULTS: Using the START list, we found one or more prescribing omissions in 57.9% of patients. In order of prevalence, the most common prescribing omissions were: statins in atherosclerotic disease (26%), warfarin in chronic atrial fibrillation (9.5%), anti-platelet therapy in arterial disease (7.3%) and calcium/vitamin D supplementation in symptomatic osteoporosis (6%). CONCLUSION: Failure to prescribe appropriate medicines is a highly prevalent problem among older people presenting to hospital with acute illness. A validated screening tool (START) is one method of systematically identifying appropriate omitted medicines in clinical practice.Language
engISSN
1468-2834 (Electronic)0002-0729 (Linking)
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/ageing/afm118
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