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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Swineshead 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 Swineshead Surgery is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Ciprofibrate 56 Lipid-regulating drugs 13,463 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.92
Cimetidine 5 H2-Receptor antagonists 6 0.83 0.07 0.13 5.74
Ciclosporin 8 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 366 0.02 0.00 0.00 5.73
Risperidone 12 Antipsychotic depot injections 12 1.00 0.08 0.21 4.44
Low protein cakes 5 Foods for special diets 201 0.02 0.00 0.01 4.28
Liquid paraffin 11 Emollient bath and shower preparations 36 0.31 0.03 0.07 3.89
Bupivacaine hydrochloride 13 Local anaesthetics 78 0.17 0.01 0.05 3.44
Sirolimus 14 Corticosteroids and other immunosuppressants 28 0.50 0.03 0.14 3.38
Piracetam 2 Essential tremor,chorea,tics and related disorders 2 1.00 0.12 0.30 2.90
Trifluoperazine 23 Antipsychotic drugs 940 0.02 0.00 0.01 2.83

Prescribing where Swineshead Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Famotidine 1 H2-Receptor antagonists 6 0.17 0.81 0.21 -3.07
Procyclidine hydrochloride 8 Antimuscarinic drugs used in parkinsonism 25 0.32 0.85 0.21 -2.55
Clarithromycin 77 Macrolides 328 0.23 0.57 0.16 -2.12
Ispaghula husk 90 Bulk-forming laxatives 109 0.83 0.96 0.07 -1.90
Vitamin E 0 Vitamin E 2 0.00 0.72 0.41 -1.76
    Nicotine 2 Nicotine dependence 24 0.08 0.65 0.33 -1.70
    Sertraline hydrochloride 2,288 Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 7,132 0.32 0.46 0.09 -1.58
    Estradiol 151 Oestrogens and Hormone Replacement Therapy 554 0.27 0.47 0.14 -1.42
    Latanoprost 354 Treatment of glaucoma 1,826 0.19 0.31 0.08 -1.39
    Lidocaine hydrochloride 57 Local anaesthetics 78 0.73 0.90 0.13 -1.29