Less is more: a project to reduce the number of PIMs (potentially inappropriate medications) on an elderly care ward.
Previous studies have found that older patients experience high rates of adverse drug events and are often prescribed inappropriate medications. This commentary discusses a quality improvement project aimed at reducing avoidable adverse drug events that used prescribing criteria, a checklist, and plan-do-study-act methods to help identify potentially inappropriate medications prescribed in a unit, educate and raise awareness about the medications among health care workers, and remove the medications from the ward.