Prevention of Hospital-Acquired Adverse Drug Reactions in Older People Using Screening Tool of Older Persons' Prescriptions and Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment Criteria: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

In this RCT (n=732), use of the Screening Tool of Older Persons' Prescriptions (STOPP) and Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START) criteria resulted in significant reductions in adverse drug reaction incidence (11.7% v 21%) and medication costs (€90 v €73) v control.

This RCT, conducted at an Irish hospital, was designed to compare the rate of hospital acquired adverse drug reactions in acutely ill older adults who received standard pharmaceutical care, with the rate of those whose medications were adjusted according to the STOPP/START criteria to examined the effect of the use of the STOPP/START criteria as an intervention for minimising hospital-acquired incident adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Hospital-acquired ADRs were defined as those occurring after admission to hospital up to Day 7 to 10 or discharge, whichever came first.

 

Usual pharmacist care consisted of full medication reconciliation, surveillance of prescription order sheets (independent of medical prescribers) with specific written advice attached to the prescription order sheets in the event of unclear drug prescription names, use of brand names rather than generic names, incorrect dose or dose interval, and incorrect prescription duration.