Prevalence of preventable medication-related hospitalizations in Australia: an opportunity to reduce harm

Objective. To identify the prevalence of potentially preventable medication-related hospitalizations amongst elderly Australian veterans by applying clinical indicators to administrative claims data. Design and Setting. Retrospective cohort study in the Australian veteran population from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008. Participants. A total of 109 044 veterans with one or more hospitalizations defined by the medication-related clinical indicator set, during the 5-year study period. Main Outcome Measure. The prevalence of potentially preventable medication-related hospitalizations as a proportion of all hospitalizations defined by the clinical indicator set. Results. During the 5-year study period, there were a total of 1 630 008 hospital admissions of which 216 527 (13.3%) were for conditions defined by the medication-related clinical indicator set for 109 044 veterans. The overall proportion of potentially preventable medication-related hospitalizations was 20.3 % (n 43 963). Of the 109 044 veterans included in the study, 28 044 (25.7%) had at least one potentially preventable medication-related hospitalization and 7245 (6.6%) veterans had two or more potentially preventable admissions. Conditions with both a high prevalence of hospitalization and preventability included asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, depression and thromboembolic cerebrovascular event (23.3, 18.5 and 18.3%