title: Reducing cost by reducing polypharmacy: the polypharmacy outcomes project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effect of intervention by geriatric medicine fellows and a geriatrician on medication cost among long term care residents with polypharmacy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Interventional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A single hospital-affiliated long term care facility.
  
  
  METHODS
  Long term care residents with polypharmacy, defined as being on 9 or more medications.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medication lists of all nursing home residents were reviewed in October 2007 by geriatric medicine fellows and a faculty geriatrician using the 2003 Beers Criteria and the Epocrates online drug-drug interaction program. Recommendations for each resident were prepared and discussed directly with their primary physicians, who made the final decisions regarding medication discontinuation or taper.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mean monthly costs (derived from current retail prices) for overall as well as scheduled and pro re nata (PRN) medications were compared before and after the intervention. Estimated reduction in nursing administration time and cost were calculated based on published literature on medication administration time and nursing labor costs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-four (46.3%) of 160 residents were on 9 or more medications. Four residents died or were discharged before the intervention, leaving a final sample of 70 residents for the intervention. After the intervention, mean monthly medication costs per resident significantly decreased; overall medications, from $874.27 to $843.56 (P < .0001); scheduled medications, from $814.05 to $801.14 (P= .007); PRN medications, from $60.22 to $42.43 (P < .0001). Gastrointestinal medications demonstrated the highest cost savings of all medication categories (eg, promethazine and proton pump inhibitors), followed by central nervous system-active medications (including benzodiazepines and fluoxetine), then analgesics and diabetes medications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This polypharmacy reduction intervention by physicians used readily available tools, demonstrated a significant decrease in medication-related costs, and provided training in the core competencies of practice-based learning and improvement and systems-based practice to geriatric medicine fellows in long term care.
authors.affiliation: John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence in Geriatrics, Department of Geriatric Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817, USA. gotarokojima@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Gotaro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inaba
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lubimir
authors.forename: Patricia Lanoie
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Blanchette
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: Kamal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masaki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics*; D019338:Polypharmacy