Evaluation of polypharmacy and appropriateness of prescription in geriatric patients using Beer’s criteria at tertiary care hospital: a record based retrospective study

Objectives The current study aims to evaluate the aptness of prescription in elderly along with looking out for polypharmacy, overprescribing and under prescribing in geriatric patients being treated at the tertiary care hospital. Methods This is a retrospective record-based study, data was collected from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2018 of all the patient which are falling in the inclusion criteria. Prescription appropriateness was assessed implementing ‘Beers criteria’. Errors in prescription along with administration were checked by direct observation and analysis of prescriptions. Results Out of total 2,718 patients, 58.6 % were found to be males and 41.4 % were females. Most common comorbidities found were hypertension and coronary artery diseases (CAD). In the current study, 39 % of the prescription contained inappropriate medication and 11.20 % prescriptions were having adverse drug reaction. Error by attending nurse in prescription reading came out to be the most common error in this study. Conclusions Diclofenac was found to be the most commonly used inappropriate drug as per Beer’s criteria. Clinicians should be more cautious when using drugs in old age patients.