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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for The Shrubberies Medical Centre

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 Shrubberies Medical Centre is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Ketotifen fumarate 37 Antihistamines 599 0.06 0.00 0.00 29.20
Quinapril hydrochloride with diuretic 3 Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors 1,597 0.00 0.00 0.00 21.45
Glipizide 16 Sulfonylureas 198 0.08 0.00 0.01 8.33
Metformin hydrochloride/sitagliptin 91 Other antidiabetic drugs 594 0.15 0.01 0.03 5.47
Isosorbide dinitrate 13 Nitrates 88 0.15 0.01 0.03 5.30
Alverine citrate 39 Antispasmodic and other drugs altering gut motility 127 0.31 0.04 0.05 5.18
Dexamethasone sodium metasulphobenzoate 20 Otitis externa 63 0.32 0.04 0.05 5.01
Aceclofenac 4 Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs 336 0.01 0.00 0.00 4.77
Carbomer 974P 17 Tear deficiency, eye lubricant/astringent 176 0.10 0.01 0.02 4.59
Phosphates (Rectal) 24 Osmotic laxatives 499 0.05 0.01 0.01 4.57

Prescribing where The Shrubberies Medical Centre is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Isosorbide mononitrate 39 Nitrates 88 0.44 0.72 0.11 -2.59
Doxycycline hyclate 57 Tetracyclines 147 0.39 0.70 0.12 -2.47
Zinc oxide 1 Soothing haemorrhoidal preparations 5 0.20 0.77 0.26 -2.23
Water for injection 8 Electrolytes and water 27 0.30 0.82 0.25 -2.13
Co-amilofruse (Amiloride hydrochloride/frusemide) 0 Potassium sparing diuretics and compounds 4 0.00 0.69 0.33 -2.10
    Desogestrel 107 Oral progestogen-only contraceptives 130 0.82 0.93 0.05 -2.06
    Neomycin sulfate 17 Nasal preparations for infection 30 0.57 0.84 0.14 -1.97
    Sertraline hydrochloride 514 Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors 1,783 0.29 0.46 0.09 -1.96
    Hydroxychloroquine sulfate 13 Rheumatic disease suppressant drugs 143 0.09 0.37 0.16 -1.79
    Insulin aspart 61 Short-acting insulins 102 0.60 0.79 0.11 -1.70