Skip to main content

Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Lunesdale Surgery

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 Practices. From this we can calculate the “z-score”, which is a measure of how many standard deviations a given Practice 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 Practice's chemical:subparagraph ratios is provided, with this Practice'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 Lunesdale Surgery is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Methenamine hippurate 217 Urinary-tract infections 480 0.45 0.04 0.06 7.02
Triamcinolone acetonide 78 Drugs used in nasal allergy 766 0.10 0.01 0.02 6.22
Darifenacin hydrobromide 201 Drugs for urinary frequency enuresis and incontinence 930 0.22 0.01 0.03 5.86
Bilastine 7 Antihistamines 1,529 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.79
Other vitamin A preparations 0906011 1 Vitamin A 1 1.00 0.04 0.18 5.47
Rufinamide 17 Control of epilepsy 2,155 0.01 0.00 0.00 4.88
Oxytetracycline 109 Tetracyclines 390 0.28 0.05 0.05 4.81
Aclidinium bromide 59 Antimuscarinic bronchodilators 164 0.36 0.04 0.07 4.76
Eprosartan 45 Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists 1,758 0.03 0.00 0.01 4.38
Ipratropium bromide 50 Antimuscarinic bronchodilators 164 0.30 0.07 0.06 3.73

Prescribing where Lunesdale Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Nitrofurantoin 263 Urinary-tract infections 480 0.55 0.96 0.06 -7.02
Levothyroxine sodium 3,625 Thyroid hormones 3,666 0.99 1.00 0.00 -3.37
Pizotifen malate 0 Prophylaxis of migraine 6 0.00 0.63 0.26 -2.46
    Tiotropium bromide 46 Antimuscarinic bronchodilators 164 0.28 0.71 0.18 -2.40
    Mercaptopurine 0 Antimetabolites 19 0.00 0.80 0.35 -2.32
      Vitamin A 0 Vitamin A 1 0.00 0.82 0.36 -2.28
        Sertraline hydrochloride 894 Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 3,403 0.26 0.46 0.09 -2.25
        Budesonide 0 Corticosteroids 19 0.00 0.71 0.32 -2.21
          Folic acid 658 Drugs used in megaloblastic anaemias 1,848 0.36 0.69 0.16 -2.14
          Sumatriptan succinate 190 Treatment of acute migraine 456 0.42 0.67 0.12 -2.11