Association Between Geriatric Frailty and Medication Related Problems in the Emergency Department to Help Clinical Pharmacists Prioritise Patients

Summary

The healthcare systems are under increasing pressure due to a rise in emergency consultations, staff shortages, an ageing population and rising costs. Emergency departments are seeing more vulnerable patients, including elderly people, who are often on multiple medications and at risk of medication errors.

To improve safety, the integration of pharmacists specialising in emergency medicine has proven beneficial: their presence in the team improves the detection of medication-related problems, speeds up and optimises treatment, reduces rehospitalisations and lowers healthcare costs. However, in most countries, these pharmacists are still rarely found in emergency departments, mainly due to a lack of resources and clinical prioritisation criteria tailored for them and adapted to this environment.

Frailty screening tools and scores, such as ISAR, can be used to identify the elderly patients most at risk, predict adverse events such as fall or mortality, and thus adapt their care in the emergency department. Indeed, elderly frail patients often take many medications and consequently are at risk of medication errors, adverse events, inappropriate prescriptions or serious drug interactions. These patients may therefore require a specialised review on their medication by clinical pharmacists when they are admitted to the emergency department, but their high number make it impossible to care for all of them.

We aim thus to evaluate the association between frailty (according to the ISAR score) and medication-related problems among elderly patients admitted to the emergency department. Researchers will examine whether this score can predict the presence of inappropriate prescribing and high-risk drug interactions. If so, pharmacists would then have a quick and easy tool to prioritise patients who would benefit most from a specialised review of their medications when they visit the emergency department.

There will not be any intervention and this study will not influence patients care. Once patients agree to participate, researchers will prospectively collect medical data from elderly patients admitted to the emergency department and analyse their medical history, home medication, reason for admission, frailty score using ISAR, and perform a pharmaceutical analysis based on these data.

Conditions

• Frailty
• Emergency Department Visit
• Elderly
• Drug Drug Interaction
• Inappropriate Drug Use

Interventions

OTHER

Pharmaceutical analysis based on the Electronic Patient Record

After inclusion, each patient's data will be collected and analysed by the investigator in the following 5 days. The said data will be: * Independent variables (demographic data, laboratory results, comorbidities, home medication treatment, reason for admission) * The ISAR score, using the electronic patients record * The number of inappropriate prescriptions, using STOPP/START version 3 online tool. * The number of high-risk drug interactions (categories D "Consider therapy modification" and X "Avoid combination"), using Lexicomp™ Interact online tool. * The number of drug-related problems, using the PCNE classification version 9.1, including usual home patient's treatment as well as treatment received in the ED. * The likelihood of a medication-related emergency consultation, using AT-HARM 10 score.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Pharmacie des Hopitaux de l'Est Lemanique

  lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-03-01

Primary Completion

2026-08-31

Completion

2026-09-30

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations