Skip to main content

Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for The Ridgeway 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 The Ridgeway Surgery is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Ertugliflozin 229 Other antidiabetic drugs 4,212 0.05 0.0 0.00 15.33
Other mouth wash, gargle and dentifrice preparations 8 Mouth-washes, gargles and dentifrices 25 0.32 0.0 0.03 9.94
Wool alcohols 45 Emollients 659 0.07 0.0 0.01 8.43
Low protein cooking aids 8 Foods for special diets 307 0.03 0.0 0.00 7.75
Pentosan polysulfate sodium 7 Oral anticoagulants 2,926 0.00 0.0 0.00 5.93
Econazole nitrate 1 Antifungal preparations 169 0.01 0.0 0.00 5.19
Ciclosporin 8 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 407 0.02 0.0 0.00 5.14
Low protein cakes 9 Foods for special diets 307 0.03 0.0 0.01 5.07
Oxycodone hydrochloride/naloxone hydrochloride 31 Opioid analgesics 1,224 0.03 0.0 0.00 4.97
Gluten free/low protein biscuits 18 Foods for special diets 307 0.06 0.0 0.01 4.87

Prescribing where The Ridgeway Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Chlorhexidine gluconate 14 Mouth-washes, gargles and dentifrices 25 0.56 0.97 0.11 -3.89
Other multivitamin preparations 87 Multivitamin preparations 271 0.32 0.82 0.21 -2.42
Amitriptyline hydrochloride 951 Tricyclic and related antidepressant drugs 1,429 0.67 0.84 0.08 -2.32
Rifampicin 0 Antituberculosis drugs 17 0.00 0.74 0.40 -1.88
    Quinine sulfate 165 Antimalarials 253 0.65 0.90 0.14 -1.80
    Naftidrofuryl oxalate 0 Peripheral vasodilators and related drugs 32 0.00 0.67 0.39 -1.73
      Fluconazole 28 Triazole antifungals 45 0.62 0.85 0.13 -1.72
      Other food for special diet preparations 77 Foods for special diets 307 0.25 0.65 0.24 -1.65
      Duloxetine hydrochloride 48 Other antidepressant drugs 1,306 0.04 0.15 0.07 -1.59
      Valproic acid 0 Drugs used for mania and hypomania 7 0.00 0.38 0.28 -1.39