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Multiple consultations and polypharmacy of patients attending geriatric outpatient units of university hospitals
Author(s) -
Suzuki Yusuke,
Akishita Masahiro,
Arai Hidenori,
Teramoto Shinji,
Morimoto Shigeto,
Toba Kenji
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geriatrics and gerontology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1447-0594
pISSN - 1444-1586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0594.2006.00355.x
Subject(s) - medicine , polypharmacy , medical prescription , incidence (geometry) , geriatrics , beers criteria , outpatient clinic , university hospital , drug , family medicine , pediatrics , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , psychiatry , nursing , physics , optics
Background: Multiple consultations in older patients may increase the chance of overlapping prescriptions or inappropriate drug prescribing. Methods: We carried out a survey investigating the status of multiple consultations and the polypharmacy of patients attending geriatric outpatient units of five university hospitals. Results: The patients who received multiple consultations did not have a different number of diagnosed disorders and drugs prescribed by geriatricians compared with the patients who received a single consultation. Conclusions: No significant difference in diagnostic and prescribing profiles between the patients with referrals and those without, together with the relatively smaller incidence of inappropriate prescriptions by referrals to non‐geriatric specialists, suggest that multiple consultations per se may not necessarily increase the risk for adverse drug events in clinical settings.