Assessment of Adherence to Renal Dosing Guidelines in Long‐Term Care Facilities

OBJECTIVE: We determined whether dosing guidelines based on creatinine clearance (Ccr) for renally excreted drugs are being applied when prescribing to long-term care residents DESIGN: A cross sectional chart review for the month of May 1999. PARTICIPANTS: Long-term care residents more than 65 years of age from four long-term care facilities in Southern Ontario who were prescribed a medication from a list of renally excreted drugs commonly prescribed in long-term care facilities. RESULTS: Approximately one in three prescriptions (34.1%) were considered inappropriate for the calculated Ccr of the residents. Overall, 42.3% of the residents who were prescribed a drug under review received at least one inappropriate prescription based on creatinine clearance. Logistic regression found that age (odds ratio (OR) = 1.06 per year; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.09, P = .001), weight (OR = 0.96 per kg; 95% CI 0.94-0.98, P < .001), the total number of prescribed medications (OR = 1.10; 95% CI 1.04-1.17, P = .001), and the number of physicians prescribing in the facility (OR 1.02; 95% CI, 1.003-1.044, P = .03) were predictive for receiving an inappropriate prescription based on Ccr. CONCLUSIONS: Renal function is often overlooked when prescribing renally excreted drugs to older long-term care residents. These findings emphasize the need for consideration of Ccr when prescribing such drugs in this population.