Patient focused drug surveillance of elderly patients in nursing homes.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether patient focused drug surveillance was associated with a higher quality of drug treatment at nursing homes.


METHODS
An intervention study in four nursing homes in Sweden and four other nursing homes served as controls. At the intervention nursing homes physicians focused on patients' health status as a baseline for further ongoing medication. The outcomes were mortality, health care consumption, and number of drugs, health status and evaluations as parameters for "quality of drug treatment".


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in mortality rates. Health care consumption and polypharmacy were extensive in both groups. There was a significant reduction of number of drugs used per patient at the intervention homes during the study (p < 0.05). Monitoring and evaluation of the effects of medications were significantly more frequent at the intervention homes (p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The intervention resulted in significant positive results in relation to "quality of drug treatment", a shift in health care utilization with concomitant use of fewer drugs. The study showed an extreme shortage of monitoring of health status and surveillance of the effects of drugs in the elderly.
Olsson
Inger Nordin
IN
Family Medicine Research Centre, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden. inger.nordin-olsson@orebroll.se
Curman
Bengt
B
Engfeldt
Peter
P
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016903:Drug Monitoring; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D019338:Polypharmacy; D013548:Sweden