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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for NHS St Helens CCG

At OpenPrescribing we are piloting a number of data-driven approaches to identify unusual prescribing and collect feedback on this prescribing to inform development of new tools to support prescribers and organisations to audit and review prescribing. These pilot results are provided for the interest of advanced users, although we don't know how relevant they are in practice. There is substantial variation in prescribing behaviours, across various different areas of medicine. Some variation can be explained by demographic changes, or local policies or guidelines, but much of the remaining variation is less easy to explain.

The DataLab is keen to hear your feedback on the results. You can do this by completing the following survey or emailing us at [email protected]. Please DO NOT INCLUDE IDENTIFIABLE PATIENT information in your feedback. All feedback is helpful, you can send short or detailed feedback.

This report has been developed to automatically identify prescribing patterns at a chemical level which are furthest away from “typical prescribing” and can be classified as an “outlier”. We calculate the number of prescriptions for each chemical in the BNF coding system, the count of all prescriptions within that chemical's BNF subparagraph, for prescriptions dispensed between June 2021 and December 2021. We then calculate the ratio of these counts along with the mean and standard deviation of those ratios across all CCGs. From this we can calculate the “z-score”, which is a measure of how many standard deviations a given CCG is from the population mean. We then rank your “z-scores” to find the top 10 results where prescribing is an outlier for prescribing higher than its peers and those where it is an outlier for prescribing lower than its peers.

For each outlier chemical, a kernel density estimation plot of all CCG's chemical:subparagraph ratios is provided, with this CCG's ratio overlaid in red.

It is important to remember that this information was generated automatically and it is therefore likely that some of the behaviour is warranted. This report seeks only to collect information about where this variation may be warranted and where it might not, to inform research on this topic. Our full analytical method code is openly available on GitHub here.

This is a new, experimental feature. We'd love to .

Prescribing where NHS St Helens CCG is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Linezolid 21 Some other antibacterials 331 0.06 0.01 0.01 6.61
Darifenacin hydrobromide 4,594 Drugs for urinary frequency enuresis and incontinence 21,930 0.21 0.02 0.03 6.26
Insulin glulisine 2,160 Short-acting insulins 7,402 0.29 0.04 0.05 5.52
Aluminium and magnesium and oxetacaine 44 Antacids and simeticone 178 0.25 0.03 0.04 5.18
Ceftazidime pentahydrate 9 Cephalosporins 2,065 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.06
Urine testing reagents 1,101 Diabetic diagnostic and monitoring agents 16,133 0.07 0.01 0.01 5.05
Liraglutide 2,427 Other antidiabetic drugs 22,662 0.11 0.03 0.02 4.69
Adalimumab 1 Rheumatic disease suppressant drugs 6,128 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.54
Econazole nitrate 7 Antifungal preparations 3,246 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.49
Fluorometholone 304 Corticosteroids 1,147 0.27 0.09 0.04 4.25

Prescribing where NHS St Helens CCG is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Vitamin A 15 Vitamin A 91 0.16 0.83 0.18 -3.76
Glucose blood testing reagents 14,050 Diabetic diagnostic and monitoring agents 16,133 0.87 0.94 0.02 -3.32
Insulin aspart 4,173 Short-acting insulins 7,402 0.56 0.78 0.08 -2.67
Ganciclovir 6 Antivirals 26 0.23 0.64 0.17 -2.43
Tacrolimus 54 Corticosteroids and other immunosuppressants 298 0.18 0.59 0.17 -2.35
Other multivitamin preparations 3,009 Multivitamin preparations 5,845 0.51 0.79 0.12 -2.33
Lamotrigine 7,273 Control of epilepsy 94,498 0.08 0.11 0.01 -2.20
Levetiracetam 4,552 Control of epilepsy 94,498 0.05 0.09 0.02 -2.10
Crotamiton 103 Topical local anaesthetics and antipruritics 674 0.15 0.34 0.09 -1.99
Macrogol 3350 14,320 Osmotic laxatives 24,796 0.58 0.71 0.07 -1.98