Costs of Inpatient Medications: Do Dispensing and Nursing Fees Lead to Overestimates?

To the Editor We read with great interest the Research Letter in a recent issue of JAMA Internal Medicine by Lee et al¹ raising concern about overuse of docusate as a treatment for constipation among medical inpatients. Data from our center corroborate these findings. We found that docusate is used in 15% of all medical admissions, is commonly continued following hospitalization, and is newly prescribed in up to 33% of patients upon discharge.²