Reducing Injuries From Medication-Related Falls Using Computerized Alerts for High Risk Patients

Drug-related illness accounts for 5% to 23% of hospital admissions, and is now claimed to be the sixth leading cause of mortality. Older adults are at higher risk of adverse drug-related events, and medication-related fall injuries are the most common adverse event that could be potentially prevented. There are 1.2 million falls per year among Canadian elderly, at a cost of $2.4 billion in health care services, and substantial risk of loss of independence. The overall purpose of this research program is to reduce medication-related fall injuries by using computerized electronic prescribing and drug management systems to identify high risk patients and provide physicians with patient-specific recommendations for modifying psychotropic medication use to reduce this risk.