One Hundred Explicit Definitions of Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions of Antibiotics in Hospitalized Older Patients: The Results of an Expert Consensus Study.

BACKGROUND: In geriatrics, explicit criteria for potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) are useful for optimizing drug use. OBJECTIVE: To produce an expert consensus on explicit definitions of antibiotic-PIPs for hospitalized older patients. METHODS: We conducted a Delphi survey involving French experts on antibiotic stewardship in hospital settings. During the survey's rounds, the experts gave their opinion on each explicit definition, and could suggest new definitions. Definitions with a 1-to-9 Likert score of between 7 and 9 from at least 75% of the participants were adopted. The results were discussed during consensus meetings after each round. RESULTS: Of the 155 invited experts, 128 (82.6%) participated in the whole survey: 59 (46%) infectious diseases specialists, 45 (35%) geriatricians, and 24 (19%) other specialists. In Round 1, 65 explicit definitions were adopted and 21 new definitions were suggested. In Round 2, 35 other explicit definitions were adopted. The results were validated during consensus meetings (with 44 participants after Round 1, and 54 after Round 2). CONCLUSIONS: The present study is the first to have provided a list of explicit definitions of potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for hospitalized older patients. It might help to disseminate key messages to prescribers and reduce inappropriate prescriptions of antibiotics.

Implementation of a clinical decision support system for the optimization of antidiabetic drug orders by pharmacists.

AIMS: The objective of the study was to describe the impact of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) on antidiabetic drug management by clinical pharmacists for hospitalized patients with T2DM. METHODS: We performed a retrospective, single-centre study in a teaching hospital, where clinical pharmacists analysed prescriptions and issued pharmacist interventions (PIs) through a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system. A CDSS was integrated into the pharmacists' workflow in July 2019. We analysed PIs during 2 periods of interest: one before the introduction of the CDSS (from November 2018 to April 2019, PIs issued through the CPOE alone) and one afterwards (from November 2020 to April 2021, PIs issued through the CPOE and/or the CDSS). The study covered nondiabetology wards as endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism departments were not computerized at the time of the study. RESULTS: There were 203 PIs related to antidiabetic drugs in period 1 and 319 in period 2 (a 57.5% increase). Sixty-four of the 319 PIs were generated by the CDSS. Noncompliance/contraindication was the main problem identified by the CDSS (41 PIs, 68.4%), and 57.8% led to discontinuation of the drug. Most of the PIs issued through the CDSS corresponded to orders that had not been flagged up by clinical pharmacists using the CPOE. Conversely, most alerts about indications that were not being treated were detected by the clinical pharmacists using the CPOE and not by the CDSS. CONCLUSION: Use of CDSS by clinical pharmacists improved antidiabetic drug management for hospitalized patients with T2DM. The CDSS might add value to diabetes care in nondiabetology wards by decreasing the frequency of potentially inappropriate prescriptions and adverse drug reactions.

New horizons in the analysis of hospital readmissions of older adults.

This short communication highlights analytical methods that can be usefully applied to the problem of hospital readmissions of older adults. The limitations of the models currently used in studies of hospital readmissions are described. In summary, analyses of hospital readmissions face two important methodological and statistical problems not accounted for by these currently used statistical models: the potential recurrence of readmissions, and death, a terminal event which absorbs the readmission process. Not addressing the issue raised by recurrent events and terminal event generates biased estimates. We discuss an approach for the analysis of hospital readmission risk and death in the same framework. Understanding the features of this kind of approaches is essential at a time when high-quality data on hospital readmission in older patients are becoming available to a large number of researchers. Models adapted for the analysis of recurrent and terminal events are presented, and their application to studies of hospital readmission are explained, with reference to two cohorts of several thousand older individuals.

Considering Work Systems and Processes in Assessing the Impact of a CDSS Intervention: Preliminary Results.

The DetecIP project aims to implement multifactorial dynamic rules within a computerized decision support system (CDSS) for pharmaceutical analysis of orders to reduce the rate and severity of iatrogenic hyperkalemia and acute kidney injury. However, understanding the impact of this intervention (if any) requires that the way in which it influences the work systems and processes also be studied. This study presents the preliminary results of the analysis of the work contexts in which these rules will be implemented. A series of semi-structured interviews exploring the dimensions of the systems engineering initiative for patient safety (SEIPS) were conducted with healthcare professionals involved in the prevention and management of iatrogenic risks in five hospital units. Data were analyzed to identify current barriers and facilitators to the prevention and management of iatrogenic risks. Preliminary results from a geriatric unit and a cardiology unit reveal that, despite overall similarities in work processes, differences in the availability and location of physicians and clinical pharmacists influence how iatrogenic risks are managed. These contextual differences could influence the impact of the new CDSS rules once implemented.

Reconsidering frailty from a human and social sciences standpoint: towards an interdisciplinary approach to vulnerability.

Although frailty is an important, well-characterized concept in the provision of medical care to older adults, it has not been linked to the concept of vulnerability developed in the humanities and social sciences. Here, we distinguish between the two main dimensions of vulnerability: a fundamental, anthropological dimension in which people are exposed to a risk of injury, and a relational dimension in which people depend on each other and on their environment. The relational notion of vulnerability might provide healthcare professionals with a better understanding of frailty (and its potential interaction with precarity). Precarity situates people in their relationship with a social environment that might threaten their living conditions. Frailty corresponds to individual-level changes in adaptation to a living environment and the loss of ability to evolve or react in that environment. Therefore, we suggest that by considering the geriatric notion of frailty as a particular form of relational vulnerability, healthcare professionals could better understand the specific needs of frail, older people-and thus provide more appropriate care.

STOPP/START criteria for potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people: version 3.

PURPOSE: STOPP/START is a physiological systems-based explicit set of criteria that attempts to define the clinically important prescribing problems relating to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs-STOPP criteria) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs-START criteria). The previous two versions of STOPP/START criteria were published in 2008 and 2015. The present study describes the revised and updated third version of the criteria. METHODS: A detailed system-by-system review of the published literature from April 2014 to March 2022 was undertaken with the aim of including clinically important new explicit PIM and PPO criteria and removing any criteria considered to be no longer correct or outdated. A panel of 11 academic physicians with recognized expertise in geriatric pharmacotherapy from 8 European countries participated in a Delphi panel with the task of validating the draft criteria. The panel was presented with the draft new criteria using the SurveyMonkey® on-line platform in which panelists were asked to indicate their level of agreement on a five-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Two hundred and four evidence-based draft criteria (one hundred and forty-five STOPP criteria, fifty-nine START criteria) were presented to panelists for assessment using the Delphi validation method. Over the course of four rounds of Delphi validation, the panel achieved consensus on 133 STOPP criteria and 57 START criteria, i.e., 190 STOPP/START criteria in total representing a 66.7% increase in the number of criteria compared to STOPP/START version 2 published in 2015. CONCLUSION: A fully revised and updated version of STOPP/START criteria has been validated by a European expert panel using the Delphi consensus process.

Description of a French Population of Diabetics Treated Followed up by General Practitioners.

In France, the prevalence of treated diabetes has been estimated at 4.6%, or more than 3 million people and 5.2% in Northern France. The reuse of primary care data allows to study outpatient clinical data such as laboratory results and drug prescriptions, which are not documented in claims and hospital databases. In this study, we selected the population of treated diabetics from the Wattrelos primary care data warehouse, in North of France. Firstly, we studied the laboratory results of diabetics by identifying whether the recommendations of the French National Authority for Health (HAS) were respected. In a second step, we studied the prescriptions of diabetics by identifying the oral hypoglycemic agents treatments and insulins treatments. The diabetic population represents 690 patients of the health care center. The recommendations on labortatory are respected for 84% of diabetics. The majority of diabetics are treated with oral hypoglycemic agents 68.6%. As recommended by the HAS, metformin is the first-line treatment in the diabetic population.

Publication Dynamics on Social Media During the Orpea Nursing Homes Scandal: A Twitter Analysis.

The release of a book denouncing mistreatment in French nursing home triggered a scandal which was conveyed on social networks. The objectives of this study were to study the temporal trends and dynamics of publication on Twitter during the scandal as well as to identify the main topics of discussion.The first one is spontaneous and completely aligned with the actuality and fed by media and family of residents, while the second one is out of step with current events and fed by the company involved in the scandal.

Inter-Professional Communications During Follow-Up of Type 2 Diabetes Patients: An Exploratory Study.

Follow-up of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) involves several healthcare professionals. The quality of their communication is crucial for optimizing care. This exploratory work aims to characterize those communications and their problems. Interviews were performed with general practitioners (GP), patients and other professionals. Data were analyzed deductively, and results were structured through a people map. We performed 25 interviews. GP, patients, nurses, community pharmacists, medical specialists and diabetologists are the main actors of the T2DM patients' follow-up. Three communication issues were identified: difficulties in reaching the hospital diabetologist, delays in receiving reports, and difficulties for patient to transmit information. Results were discussed in terms of tools, care pathways and new roles to support communications during T2DM patients' follow-up.

Detection of Drug-Related Problems through a Clinical Decision Support System Used by a Clinical Pharmacy Team.

Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are intended to detect drug-related problems in real time and might be of value in healthcare institutions with a clinical pharmacy team. The objective was to report the detection of drug-related problems through a CDSS used by an existing clinical pharmacy team over 22 months. It was a retrospective single-center study. A CDSS was integrated in the clinical pharmacy team in July 2019. The investigating clinical pharmacists evaluated the pharmaceutical relevance and physician acceptance rates for critical alerts (i.e., alerts for drug-related problems arising during on-call periods) and noncritical alerts (i.e., prevention alerts arising during the pharmacist's normal work day) from the CDSS. Of the 3612 alerts triggered, 1554 (43.0%) were critical, and 594 of these 1554 (38.2%) prompted a pharmacist intervention. Of the 2058 (57.0%) noncritical alerts, 475 of these 2058 (23.1%) prompted a pharmacist intervention. About two-thirds of the total pharmacist interventions (PI) were accepted by physicians; the proportion was 71.2% for critical alerts (i.e., 19 critical alerts per month vs. 12.5 noncritical alerts per month). Some alerts were pharmaceutically irrelevant-mainly due to poor performance by the CDSS. Our results suggest that a CDSS is a useful decision-support tool for a hospital pharmacist's clinical practice. It can help to prioritize drug-related problems by distinguishing critical and noncritical alerts. However, building an appropriate organizational structure around the CDSS is important for correct operation.

Improving the usability and usefulness of computerized decision support systems for medication review by clinical pharmacists: A convergent, parallel evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Computerized decision support systems (CDSSs) help hospital-based clinical pharmacists to perform medication reviews and so are promising tools for improving medication safety. However, their poor usability can reduce effectiveness and acceptability. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the usability and perceived usefulness of a CDSS for medication review by hospital-based pharmacists and to draw up guidelines on improving its usability. METHODS: We performed a convergent, parallel evaluation. Firstly, three researchers conducted a heuristic evaluation of the CDSS. Secondly, clinical pharmacists who use the CDSS filled out the Usefulness, Satisfaction and Ease of Use (USE) questionnaire. Lastly, semi-structured interviews with the pharmacists enabled us to understand their opinions and experiences. The results of the heuristic evaluation were used to identify potential improvements in the CDSS. We performed a statistical analysis of the USE questionnaire data. Interviews were analyzed based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), together with a task-technology fit model. The results generated by these three approaches were compared in order to determine convergences and divergences, identify challenges related to the usability and usefulness of the CDSS, and draw up guidelines for its improvement. RESULTS: Forty-seven usability problems were discovered; they variously concerned the graphical user interface, the pharmacists' needs, and the medication review model implemented in the CDSS. Only the "usefulness" dimension of the USE was not scored positively. All the UTAUT dimensions and the task-technology fit dimension emerged in the interviews. Cross-comparisons of the results from the three approaches led to the identification of four challenges and the corresponding formulation of 23 guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: The guidelines developed here should help to improve the design and acceptability of CDSSs. Hence, CDSSs will be able to assist clinical pharmacists more fully with their medication reviews and help to further improve patient safety.

The impact of including a medication review in an integrated care pathway: A pilot study.

AIM: The objective of the present study was to measure the impact of the intervention of combining a medication review with an integrated care approach on potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and hospital readmissions in frail older adults. METHODS: A cohort of hospitalized older adults enrolled in the French PAERPA integrated care pathway (the exposed cohort) was matched retrospectively with hospitalized older adults not enrolled in the pathway (unexposed cohort) between January 1st, 2015, and December 31st, 2018. The study was an analysis of French health administrative database. The inclusion criteria for exposed patients were admission to an acute care department in a general hospital, age 75 years or over, at least three comorbidities or the prescription of diuretics or oral anticoagulants, discharge alive and performance of a medication review. RESULTS: For the study population (n = 582), the mean ± standard deviation age was 82.9 ± 4.9 years, and 380 (65.3%) were women. Depending on the definition used, the overall median number of PIMs ranged from 2 [0;3] on admission to 3 [0;3] at discharge. The intervention was not associated with a significant difference in the mean number of PIMs. Patients in the exposed cohort were half as likely to be readmitted to hospital within 30 days of discharge relative to patients in the unexposed cohort. CONCLUSION: Our results show that a medication review was not associated with a decrease in the mean number of PIMs. However, an integrated care intervention including the medication review was associated with a reduction in the number of hospital readmissions at 30 days.

Factors Associated with Transfer from an Acute Geriatric Unit to a Post-Acute Care Facility among Community-Dwelling Patients: Results from the DAMAGE Cohort.

Background: Acute geriatric units (AGUs) require efficient discharge planning tools. Risk factors for discharge from an AGU to post-acute care (PAC) have not previously been investigated in detail. Methods: The objective is to identify risk factors for PAC transfer. The DAMAGE (prospective multicenter cohort) consecutively included more than 3500 subjects aged 75 or older and admitted to an AGU. The patients underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) during their stay in the AGU. Only community-dwelling patients admitted to the AGU from the emergency department were included in the analysis. We recorded the characteristics of the care pathway and identified risk factors for discharge to home or to a PAC facility. Results: 1928 patients were included. Loss of functional independence (a decrease in the Katz activities of daily living (ADL) score between 1 month prior to admission and AGU admission), living alone, social isolation, a high Katz ADL score at home, a low Katz ADL on admission, and delirium on admission were risk factors for transfer to PAC. Obesity, an elevated serum albumin level, and community-acquired infection were associated with discharge to home. Neither sex nor age was a risk factor for home discharge or transfer to PAC. Conclusion: The present results might help clinicians and discharge planning teams to identify patients at risk of transfer to PAC more reliably and promptly in AGUs.

GPs' interest in integrated care for frail older adults and corresponding consulting and prescribing data: qualitative and quantitative analyses of the PAERPA integrated care project.

BACKGROUND: Integrated care pathways can help to avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital and improve the overall quality of care for frail older patients. Although these integrated care pathways should be coordinated by GPs their level of commitment may vary. AIM: To profile GPs who had participated or had declined to participate in the Personnes Agées En Risque de Perte d'Autonomie (PAERPA) integrated care project (ICP) in the Valenciennois-Quercitain area of France between 2014 and 2019. DESIGN AND SETTING: A combined qualitative and quantitative analysis of GPs who were participating in or had declined to participate in the PAERPA ICP. METHOD: Both GPs participating in the ICP and GPs who chose not to participate in the ICP were interviewed, and then consultation and prescription profiles for these two groups were compared. RESULTS: Some GPs were interested in the PAERPA ICP, whereas others were opposed. The 48 qualitative interviews revealed four issues that influenced participation in the PAERPA ICP: 1) awareness of issues in care of older adults and the value of collaborative work; 2) time saving; 3) task delegation; and 4) advantages of coordination. The level of interest in the ICP for frail older adults was indirectly reflected by the data on consulting and prescribing. In GPs who participated in the PAERPA ICP there was a greater proportion of older (aged ≥70 years) patients (P<0.05), a larger number of consultations per year (P<0.05), and a larger number of home visits (P<0.01), relative to GPs who declined to participate. CONCLUSION: The level of interest in the PAERPA ICP for frail older adults varied widely among GPs. These findings suggest that commitment to an integrated care pathway could be increased by customising the recruitment strategy as a function of the GP's profile.

Defining explicit definitions of potentially inappropriate prescriptions for antidiabetic drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) of antidiabetic drugs (ADs) (PIPADs) to patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been reported in some studies. The detection of PIPs in electronic databases requires the development of explicit definitions. This approach is widely used in geriatrics but has not been extended to PIPADs in diabetes mellitus. The objective of the present literature review was to identify all explicit definitions of PIPADs in patients with T2DM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a systematic review of the literature listed on Medline (via PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, and, Embase between 2010 and 2021. The query included a combination of three concepts ("T2DM" AND "PIPs" AND "ADs") and featured a total of 86 keywords. Two independent reviewers selected publications, extracted explicit definitions of PIPADs, and then classified the definitions by therapeutic class and organ class. RESULTS: Of the 4,093 screened publications, 39 were included. In all, 171 mentions of PIPADs (corresponding to 56 unique explicit definitions) were identified. More than 50% of the definitions were related to either metformin (34%) or sulfonylureas (29%). More than 75% of the definitions were related to either abnormal renal function (56%) or age (22%). In addition, 20% (n = 35) mentions stated that biguanides were inappropriate in patients with renal dysfunction and 17.5% (n = 30) stated that sulfonylureas were inappropriate above a certain age. The definitions of PIPADs were heterogeneous and had various degrees of precision. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that researchers focused primarily on the at-risk situations related to biguanide prescriptions in patients with renal dysfunction and the prescription of sulfonylureas to older people. Our systematic review of the literature revealed a lack of consensus on explicit definitions of PIPADs, which were heterogeneous and limited (in most cases) to a small number of drugs and clinical situations.

Type 2 diabetics followed up by family physicians: Treatment sequences and changes over time in weight and glycated hemoglobin.

INTRODUCTION: The treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is based on preventive hygiene and dietary measures (HDM), oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs), and insulin. The objective of the present study was to reuse general practice data from electronic health records and describe changes over time among patients with T2DM in primary care. METHODS: We analyzed data on patients with T2DM collected by three family physicians in Tourcoing (France) from 2006 to 2018. RESULTS: 403 patients, 1030 treatment sequences, 39,042 appointments, 2440 glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) measurements, and 9722 wt measurements were included. On inclusion, the mean age was 57.0, the mean weight was 84.4 kg, the mean body mass index was 30.3 kg/m2, and the median HbA1c level was 6.8 % (51 mmol/mol). The patients were following appropriate HDM (40.7 %) and/or were being treated with OADs (54.1 %) or insulin (5.2 %). The median length of follow-up was 3.51 years. Overall, bodyweight was stable for two years during HDM and then increased. The HbA1c level decreased and then increased during HDM, was stable on OADs, and then decreased on insulin. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The present descriptive results may be of value in helping to predict changes over time in bodyweight and HbA1c in T2DM.

Barriers and enablers for deprescribing benzodiazepine receptor agonists in older adults: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies using the theoretical domains framework.

BACKGROUND: Many strategies aimed at deprescribing benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRA) in older adults have already been evaluated with various success rates. There is so far no consensus on which strategy components increase deprescribing the most. Yet, despite an unfavourable benefit-to-risk ratio, BZRA use among older adults remains high. We systematically reviewed barriers and enablers for BZRA deprescribing in older adults. METHODS: Two reviewers independently screened records identified from five electronic databases-Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and the Cochrane library-and published before October 2020. They searched for grey literature using Google Scholar. Qualitative and quantitative records reporting data on the attitudes of older adults, caregivers and healthcare providers towards BZRA deprescribing were included. Populations at the end of life or with specific psychiatric illness, except for dementia, were excluded. The two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the included studies using the mixed-methods appraisal tool. Barriers and enablers were identified and then coded into domains of the theoretical domains framework (TDF) using a combination of deductive and inductive qualitative analysis. The most relevant TDF domains for BZRA deprescribing were then identified. RESULTS: Twenty-three studies were included 13 quantitative, 8 qualitative and 2 mixed-method studies. The points of view of older adults, general practitioners and nurses were reported in 19, 9 and 3 records, respectively. We identified barriers and enablers in the majority of TDF domains and in two additional themes: "patient characteristics" and "BZRA prescribing patterns". Overall, the most relevant TDF domains were "beliefs about capabilities", "beliefs about consequences", "environmental context and resources", "intention", "goals", "social influences", "memory, attention and decision processes". Perceived barriers and enablers within domains differed across settings and across stakeholders. CONCLUSION: The relevant TDF domains we identified can now be linked to behavioural change techniques to help in the design of future strategies and health policies. Future studies should also assess barriers and enablers perceived by under-evaluated stakeholders (such as pharmacists, psychiatrists and health care professionals in the hospital setting). TRIAL REGISTRATION: This work was registered on PROSPERO under the title "Barriers and enablers to benzodiazepine receptor agonists deprescribing". REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020213035.