Do hospitalists overuse proton pump inhibitors? Data from a contemporary cohort.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly used to treat acid-related disorders, but are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia and Clostridium difficile associated-diarrhea.1,2 Initiation of PPIs in hospitalized patients should therefore be limited to specific clinical situations, such as upper gastrointestinal bleeding or stress ulcer prophylaxis in the critically ill.3 Prior studies suggest significant overuse of PPIs in hospitalized patients exists,4–7 but these were published before the widespread implementation of local and national quality improvement efforts targeted at reducing PPI use in medical inpatients (e.g. Society of Hospital Medicine’s (SHM) “Choosing Wisely” list8). We aimed to determine the frequency of inappropriate use of PPIs in a contemporary cohort of hospitalized patients in a tertiary care academic medical center.