A re-audit of polypharmacy recognition in older patients on admission to an acute hospital
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Date
2025
Authors
Cronin, Matthew
McMahon, Ivanna
Ibrahim, Ahmed
Azizan, Nurul
Aziz, Rizwan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UCC Medical Research and Technology Society
Published Version
Abstract
Background: Polypharmacy has a high overall prevalence of approximately 37%. Left unrecognised, polypharmacy can increase the risk of drug-drug interactions and lead to prescribing cascades. Prompt recognition and management of polypharmacy is essential as it may represent a reversible cause of a patient’s symptoms. Methods: A re-audit of polypharmacy recognition in Bantry General Hospital was performed. Patients were included if they were aged seventy-five years or older, prescribed 5 or more medications on admission and were in-patients during a 24-hour period on the 10th of September 2024. The presence or absence of polypharmacy as a diagnosis was recorded. Results: 25 patients were identified as eligible for inclusion. 17 male patients (68%) and 8 female (32%) were included. The median age was 82 years old and ages ranged from 75-99. Polypharmacy was included as a diagnosis in only one of the 25 patients’ admissions (4%), this is a marginal increase from 0 (0%) in the previous audit. The mean number of m– 15. The maximum number of prescribed medications reduced from 21 to 15 in the re-audit. Conclusion: Marginal improvements in the volume of polypharmacy and polypharmacy documentation were observed in this re-audit, however, further efforts are required to reduce this problem. It is important to recognise and document polypharmacy in older patients to reduce the potential for adverse outcomes.
Description
Keywords
Polypharmacy , Older patients , Acute hospital
Citation
Cronin, M., McMahon, I., Ibrahim, A., Azizan, N. and Aziz, R. (2025) 'A re-audit of polypharmacy recognition in older patients on admission to an acute hospital', UCC Student Medical Journal, 5, p. 107. https://doi.org/10.33178/SMJ.2025.1.33