Loading...
Hospitalized older patients have significant risk for adverse events caused by medication toxicities. In 1991, a panel of experts in pharmacology and geriatrics created a list of medications (the Beers criteria) to avoid in nursing home patients. Since that time, this list has been updated and modified to include 48 potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and has been incorporated into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services federal safety regulations for long-term care facilities. However, few data exist on prescribing practices or safety of these medications in hospitalized elders.
In a large retrospective cohort study, researchers assessed PIM use in nearly half a million patients older than 65 who were admitted to 384 U.S. ho…