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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Warwick Square Group Practice

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 Warwick Square Group Practice is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Flavoxate hydrochloride 31 Drugs for urinary frequency enuresis and incontinence 506 0.06 0.00 0.01 10.76
Dronedarone hydrochloride 8 Drugs for arrhythmias 24 0.33 0.02 0.06 5.06
Doxepin 30 Tricyclic and related antidepressant drugs 1,534 0.02 0.00 0.00 4.83
Salicylic acid 4 Preparations for psoriasis 111 0.04 0.00 0.01 4.02
Betamethasone sodium phosphate 24 Use of corticosteroids 595 0.04 0.01 0.01 3.65
Oxytetracycline 68 Tetracyclines 332 0.20 0.05 0.05 3.25
Light liquid paraffin 5 Emollient bath and shower preparations 5 1.00 0.34 0.20 3.24
Moxifloxacin 2 Quinolones 22 0.09 0.01 0.03 2.87
Risperidone 14 Antipsychotic depot injections 21 0.67 0.08 0.21 2.84
Hydrocortisone (Sodium succinate) 3 Drugs for oral ulceration and inflammation 6 0.50 0.11 0.14 2.83

Prescribing where Warwick Square Group Practice is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Benzydamine hydrochloride 2 Drugs for oral ulceration and inflammation 6 0.33 0.84 0.16 -3.19
Emollient bath and shower preparations 0 Emollient bath and shower preparations 5 0.00 0.63 0.21 -2.98
    Urea hydrogen peroxide 0 Removal of ear wax and other substances 1 0.00 0.83 0.33 -2.52
      Losartan potassium 259 Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists 3,060 0.08 0.50 0.19 -2.24
      Prucalopride 0 Other drugs used in constipation 9 0.00 0.71 0.32 -2.19
        Indapamide 99 Thiazides and related diuretics 1,074 0.09 0.43 0.16 -2.12
        Naftidrofuryl oxalate 0 Peripheral vasodilators and related drugs 16 0.00 0.67 0.39 -1.73
          Sodium picosulfate 0 Bowel cleansing preparations 1 0.00 0.69 0.43 -1.61
            Mometasone furoate 3 Topical corticosteroids 605 0.00 0.07 0.04 -1.61
            Paracetamol 480 Non-opioid analgesics and compound preparations 2,162 0.22 0.48 0.16 -1.60