Potentially inappropriate prescribing is common in older patients and encompasses overuse, misuse and underuse of medications. Potentially inappropriate prescribing is associated with negative outcomes including adverse drug events and hospitalization.

STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Person's potentially inappropriate Prescriptions) and START (Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment) is a new screening tool designed to detect instances of potentially inappropriate medication use and under-prescribing of clinically indicated medications in older patients. The purpose of this study is to determine whether clinical implementation of STOPP/START criteria in hospitalized older patients is effective in improving prescribing quality.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients aged 65 years and older admitted to the general medical services of Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient admitted to a geriatric medicine service, psychiatry of old age service or clinical pharmacology service, or under review of these services during the previous 12 months
• Critically ill patient (admitted to the intensive care unit)
• Terminally ill patient
• Refusal of patient or hospital physician to participate
• No time for the research physician to enrol the patient within 3 days of admission