Physician intervention for medication reduction in a nursing home: the polypharmacy outcomes project.

Objective: To examine the effects of a medication review project by geriatricians and geriatric medicine fellows on polypharmacy in a teaching nursing home.

Design: Quality improvement intervention study

Setting: Long-term care facility in Honolulu, HI PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-four patients with the Minimum Data Set quality indicator criteria of polypharmacy (9 or more medications).

Intervention: Geriatric medicine fellows and faculty reviewed each patient's medication list, consulted the updated Beers Criteria and Epocrates online drug-drug interaction program, and recommended medication changes to the patients' primary care physicians.