Unveiling Risks: The Role of Clinical Decision Support System in Addressing Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Hospitalized Older Adults (Preprint)

Abstract

Advancements in medicine have increased life expectancy, leading to a growing older population and a rise in chronic diseases and polypharmacy. In this setting, potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) use has increased and pushed forward healthcare costs and iatrogenesis. Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) have been developed to address these risks, focusing on PIMs. study aimed to assess the association between PIMs alerts (using Medi-Span Clinical, from Wolters Kluwer Health®) and adverse events, as well as other clinical outcomes, in the older hospitalized patients. Our analysis revealed that PIM alerts identified a subset of patients that were older, had more comorbidities, and were more frequently admitted through the ED. They were also independently associated with increased risk of adverse events and prolonged length of stay.