Bedside medication review with cognitive and depression screening by a clinical pharmacist as part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment in hospitalized older patients with polypharmacy: A pilot study

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy is highly prevalent in older patients with multimorbidity and is associated with increased risk of adverse drug events. This pilot study investigated the added value of a bedside medication review with cognitive and depression screening by a clinical pharmacist to identify potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and medication use issues in older patients with polypharmacy. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the period from September 2018 to March 2019, a clinical pharmacist took part in the comprehensive geriatric assessment of 37 older patients hospitalized at Antwerp University Hospital and conducted a medication review consisting of a record review, a bedside interview questionnaire covering medication use, evaluation of cognitive function (abbreviated MMSE), depression (GDS-4), and systematic check for possible PIMs (STOPP/START criteria). Patients were 83±4 years old and on a median of 12 home medications (range 5–20). The clinical pharmacist formulated an average of 7.7 recommendations to optimize medication use per patient, of which 89.9% were considered clinically relevant by the geriatrician. Only 2 out of 286 PIMs were discovered during routine electronic validation of medication prescriptions. Supervision of medication intake was absent in 75% of cognitively impaired patients, but advice to do so was implemented in 86.4% of cases. The multidisciplinary geriatric advice was communicated to the treating physician, who fully implemented 33.8% of the recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: Bedside medication review with cognitive and depression screening by a clinical pharmacist is useful to discover polypharmacy related problems and medication intake issues in a population of geriatric patients. Systematic screening for cognitive impairment and depression are needed to detect patients in need of support for correct medication use and therapy compliance.