Randomized trial to improve prescribing safety in ambulatory elderly patients.
Adverse drug events are a common and costly cause of preventable errors among elderly patients, and are frequently due to inappropriate prescribing of known high-risk medications. In this study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), researchers conducted a randomized trial of computerized alerts to pharmacists when potentially dangerous medications were prescribed. The intervention resulted in a statistically significant reduction in dispensing of the targeted potentially dangerous medications.