Reasons for discontinuation of medication during hospitalization and documentation thereof: a descriptive study of 400 geriatric and internal medicine patients.

摘要

Medication is often changed or discontinued during hospital admission, and this is especially true for medications prescribed to elderly patients. However, after discharge further changes to medication regimens are not always intentional and may be due to poor communication.2 For example, in an earlier study, we found that adverse drug reactions detected during hospitalization and requiring cessation of the causative drug were poorly communicated to primary care professionals (general practitioners and pharmacists), leading to a rate of represcription of withdrawn medication of 27% during the first 6 months after discharge.3 The study highlighted the need for better communication of reasons for discontinuation of medication. Adequate communication of these reasons can only exist on the condition that these reasons are well documented. Our experience in daily practice is that such documentation is often inadequate. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the frequency of reasons for discontinuation of medication and the documentation thereof in hospitalized patients.