Aims: To determine the prevalence of polypharmacy (defined as 10 or more medications) and rates of deprescribing among adults aged over 65yrs reviewed by a multidisciplinary geriatric team located in a tertiary hospital’s emergency department.
Methods: This is a retrospective audit analysing discharge summaries of 99 patients reviewed by a Geriatrician and a dedicated pharmacist between January – June 2025. Medication list on discharge summery used for the analysis.
Results: A total of 83 cases were included in final analysis. 16 episodes excluded due to missing/duplicate information. The age of participants ranged 65 to 94yrs. Except 10 participants from residential aged care all others were community dwelling adults. Number of regular medications of each patient varied from 0 to 31 highlighting the variability of the severity of polypharmacy. Forty four patients were identified to have polypharmacy, an incidence of 53%. In this group 82% were females, compared to 66% in the total population. Six of residential care patients had polypharmacy. Deprescribing occurred in 20 instances, with 13 of these patients had polypharmacy. The most commonly deprescribed drug classes were antibiotics, statins and thiazide diuretics. Only 11% of the discharge summaries identified polypharmacy as a problem.
Conclusions: This study highlights the increase prevalance of polypharmacy. Although deprescribing occurres, rates and documentation remaines modest even within an ideal environment that included specialist geriatricians and multidisciplinary input. Further research is needed to identify barriers to deprescribing in acute-care, evaluate structured deprescribing interventions, and assess their impact on patient outcomes across care settings.