Table 1.

Table 1 Patient Cohort Demographics, Orders, and Doses by Category

	NSAID	KCL/KCL Sparing Diuretic	ACEI/ARB	Class III Antiarrhythmic	Loop Diuretic	Thiazide Diuretic	All Other Drugs	Total
Patients Selected by Index ∗	30	33	32	27	34	34		190
Median Age at Admission	74	55	67	66	58	68		64
Patients, Number	91	96	71	31	97	51	190	190
Orders Audited, Number	136	268	120	56	318	64	540	1502
Doses Audited, Number	704	635	592	327	932	316	2513	6019

^∗ The selected charts were audited for up to five study drugs. Patients were frequently on drugs from multiple drug categories, so the number of patients in each category could be larger than the number of patients “selected” for the category.

Patients Selected by Index = Number of patients selected in the sample cohort for each medication class. All patients included were selected by medication class. No patients were “selected” for the non-study drugs; Median Age at Admission = Median age in years at the time of the patient’s admission; Patients, Number = The total number of patients with orders in the drug class. Since each patient selected was audited for up to five of the study drugs and two randomly selected non-study drugs for some patients, the number of patients audited in each class is greater than the number of patients selected to the cohort for the drug class; Orders Audited, Number = The total number of orders audited for the drug class. For each sampled medication, all orders for that medication in the first ten days of the admission were audited. For example, if potassium chloride was a sampled medication, all scheduled orders for potassium, regardless of strength, route, frequency, or duration, were audited; Doses Audited, Number = The number of doses audited for sampled drugs. For example, a twice daily order lasting two days would have had four doses audited.