Reducing the Inappropriate Use of Proton Pump Inhibitors in an Internal Medicine Residency Clinic

Introduction Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are commonly prescribed in the primary care setting. While generally considered to be safe, there is growing evidence suggesting that PPI misuse is associated with a variety of significant adverse outcomes and unnecessary cost. The goal of this quality improvement project was to identify patients with non-guideline recommended PPI prescriptions in our internal medicine residency clinics and implement a process to de-prescribe or reduce the dose of PPIs across this patient population. Methods PPI prescription rates, dosage, and indication were extracted from the medical records of all 854 patients empaneled to the internal medicine residency clinics at a multicenter closed referral military hospital system. Appropriate PPI indication was consensus based upon published guidelines, and patients without an appropriate indication were targeted for intervention. These patients were directly contacted by their primary care physicians, via phone or during a clinic visit, to discuss the risks and benefits of ongoing PPI use as well as alternative therapies or tapering regimens at the physician’s discretion. For moderate to high dose PPI, the dose was decreased by 50% every week until the lowest tolerated dose was achieved or until discontinuation. For low dose PPI, discontinuation was recommended as the initial intervention. Six months following the intervention, the empanelment was reevaluated for ongoing PPI usage, tapered dosage, or discontinuation. Results Of a total of 854 patient records reviewed at the initiation of the project, 322 patients were noted to be prescribed PPIs. Of this subset, 66% (217/322) did not meet a guideline recommended indication for their use. At the completion of the six-month intervention period, 44% (96/217) of patients were successfully weaned to a reduced dose or were no longer using a PPI. Conclusions PPIs are widely used and generally considered to be a well-tolerated therapy for acid-secretion disorders. PPI overprescription and the associated adverse effects and economic burden are increasingly recognized. We show that a simple, focused, resident-driven quality improvement intervention can be effective in de-prescribing efforts to reduce inappropriate PPI use in the outpatient primary care setting.