Reducing Potentially Inappropriate Medication Prescribing for Older Patients in the ED

Overview

This research is being conducted to learn which implementation strategy of EQUIPPED is most effective to improve prescribing practices of ED providers toward older Veterans and determine the factors influencing implementation of this program to reduce the prescribing of PIMs to older adults upon discharge from the ED. The study has three research aims. The procedures for these research aims are described below: * Aim 1 - Examining the Impact of Passive Provider Feedback vs. Active Provider Feedback Through a Randomized Trial * Aim 2 - Determination of Factors Affecting Organizational Adoption of EQUIPPED * Aim 3 - Micro-Costing the Active and Passive Feedback Versions of the EQUIPPED Intervention

Enhancing Quality of Prescribing Practices for Older Adults Discharged from the Emergency Department (EQUIPPED is a multi-component program to reduce the prescribing of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) to older adults upon discharge from the Emergency Department (ED). It has three core components: 1) provider education, 2) Electronic Health Record (EHR)-based clinical decision support (CDS) including pharmacy quick order sets to facilitate provider order entry, and 3) provider audit and feedback with peer benchmarking. In order to inform a Veterans Affairs (VA) system-wide approach to improve prescribing safety for older Veterans, the investigators will conduct a study to determine best practices for influencing provider prescribing behavior in order to decrease PIMs prescribed for older Veterans at the time of ED discharge. The overall goal of this project is to determine which EQUIPPED implementation strategy (active or passive feedback) is most effective to reduce prescribing of PIMs for older Veterans discharged from the ED.