The relationship of recurrent applications to the emergency department of geriatric patients with prescribed potentially inappropriate medications

In this study; We aimed to determine whether Potentially inappropriate medication prescribed during their application to Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine are associated with increased emergency department admissions in geriatric patients. Prescriptions issued to patients over the age of 65 who applied to Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine were examined by retrospective archive scanning. Data were collected, including potentially inappropriate medication status, age groups, gender, complaints on admission, number of medications prescribed, recurrent admissions to the emergency room within 30 days of discharge, hospitalization within 30 days of discharge, and average costs of prescriptions. Statistical analysis of these data was done with SPSS 22.0 Windows version package program. The population of the research consists of patients over 65 years old who applied to Gaziantep University Adult Emergency Service between September 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021 and were discharged with a prescription.A total of 8564 patients were included in our study, of which 48% were male (n=4142) and 52% were female (n=4422). While 51% (n=4341) of the patients included in the study received a prescription, 49% (n=4223) did not. It was determined that the patients who were included in the study and received a prescription were between the ages of 65-75 with a high rate of 59%. Of the patients included in our study who were discharged with a prescription, 50.2% (n=2181) were prescribed a 'potentially inappropriate drug', which is defined as the use of any drug off-label or at high risk in terms of side effects, and 49.8% no potentially inappropriate medication was prescribed for the patient (n=2160). The rate of repeated admissions to the emergency department within 30 days and the rate of hospitalization during these admissions of patients who were prescribed potentially inappropriate drugs were found to be significantly lower. It was observed that the rate of hospitalization at the time of re-admission to our Emergency Medicine clinic within 3-30 days after being discharged with a prescription was significantly higher in patients who took 4 or more drugs. 48% of the prescriptions issued to the participants included in the study had an average cost of 150TL or more, 19% between 100-150TL, 21% between 50-100TL and 12% between 1-50TL. In this study, it can be concluded that recurrent admissions to the emergency department and hospitalization rates of patients over 65 years of age may not be associated with potentially inappropriate drugs prescribed, while hospitalization rates may be related to the number of drugs prescribed. Keywords: Potentially inappropriate drug; Geriatric patients; Beer's criteria; Emergency medicine;