Southern medical journal
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Southern medical journal · Apr 2013
Four-year trends of inappropriate proton pump inhibitor use after hospital discharge.
Several hospital-based studies have determined that physicians often inappropriately prescribe acid-suppressive medications for stress ulcer prevention in hospitalized patients and continue these drugs after discharge. We sought to determine the frequency of inappropriate proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use continued at discharge within our geographic region. ⋯ We report a significant decrease of 39% in the number of inappropriate discharge prescriptions for PPIs during the study period; however, the percentage of inappropriate use of PPIs remains high. There is room for improvement in cost-effective use of PPIs.