Medication lists for elderly patients - Clinic-derived versus in-home inspection and interview

OBJECTIVE: To determine how often the lists of regular medications derived in geriatric clinics by examination of "medication bags" and interview matc hed those found during in-home inspections and interviews. DESIGN: Prospective cross-sectional study. SETTING: Geriatric clinics at three university-affiliate hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive community-dwelling outpatients 65 years or older who were newly referred. METHODS: The in-home medication inspection used a semistructured interview followed by a room-to-room search. The medications identified in the home w ere competed with the medication list derived in clinic by examination of t he "medication bag" and interview. MAIN RESULTS: Fifty patients with a mean age of 78.9 years participated. Th e mean number of regular medications (prescription and nonprescription) was 6.3, and the mean number of regular prescription medications was 3.6. A co mparison of clinic versus in-home medication lists revealed that 48% (95% c onfidence interval [95% CI], 34% to 62%) of patients had at least 1 omissio n of any regular medication and 19% (95%, CI 10% to 32%) of patients had at least 1 omission of a regular prescription medication. CONCLUSION: The clinic-derived medication list resulted in a complete listi ng of all regular medications in only 52% taking regular medications. More specific Instructions to patients to bring all prescription and nonprescrip tion medications and all vitamins, herbal, and natural remedies, and more d irected questions by physicians may result in more complete clinic medicati on lists.