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

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Levofloxacin 25 Quinolones 37 0.68 0.05 0.08 7.41
Doxycycline monohydrate 18 Tetracyclines 457 0.04 0.00 0.01 5.27
Lixisenatide 13 Other antidiabetic drugs 455 0.03 0.00 0.01 4.90
Beclometasone dipropionate (Systemic) 5 Corticosteroids 9 0.56 0.04 0.13 4.09
Indacaterol maleate 11 Selective beta(2)-agonists 1,635 0.01 0.00 0.00 3.95
Mycophenolate mofetil 19 Antiproliferative immunosuppressants 21 0.90 0.19 0.18 3.91
Metolazone 14 Thiazides and related diuretics 871 0.02 0.00 0.00 3.18
Eflornithine monohydrate chloride 9 Shampoos and some other scalp preparations 70 0.13 0.02 0.03 3.17
Low protein biscuits 4 Foods for special diets 76 0.05 0.00 0.02 3.14
Isophane insulin 147 Intermediate and long-acting insulins 352 0.42 0.12 0.10 2.90

Prescribing where Yelverton Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Ciprofloxacin 12 Quinolones 37 0.32 0.86 0.14 -3.91
Azathioprine 2 Antiproliferative immunosuppressants 21 0.10 0.80 0.19 -3.81
Levothyroxine sodium 2,705 Thyroid hormones 2,731 0.99 1.00 0.00 -2.78
Atropine sulfate 0 Mydriatics and cycloplegics 4 0.00 0.72 0.37 -1.93
    Methylprednisolone acetate 0 Local corticosteroid injections 104 0.00 0.74 0.39 -1.89
      Amoxicillin 326 Broad-spectrum penicillins 445 0.73 0.85 0.07 -1.79
      Lansoprazole 868 Proton pump inhibitors 5,429 0.16 0.44 0.16 -1.78
      Lactulose 90 Osmotic laxatives 792 0.11 0.28 0.10 -1.73
      Losartan potassium 292 Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists 1,600 0.18 0.50 0.19 -1.72
      Ranolazine 0 Other antianginal drugs 75 0.00 0.27 0.18 -1.50