Skip to main content

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

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Hamamelis 3 Oxidisers and dyes 3 1.00 0.00 0.04 26.25
Rabies 5 Vaccines and antisera 3,598 0.00 0.00 0.00 23.65
Other oral iron preparations 25 Oral iron 491 0.05 0.00 0.01 7.87
Rivastigmine 40 Drugs for dementia 57 0.70 0.10 0.10 6.02
Methadone hydrochloride 36 Opioid analgesics 1,534 0.02 0.00 0.00 6.00
Mizolastine 35 Antihistamines 1,162 0.03 0.00 0.00 5.99
Haloperidol decanoate 1 Antipsychotic depot injections 1 1.00 0.08 0.22 4.17
Lithium citrate 10 Drugs used for mania and hypomania 101 0.10 0.01 0.03 3.56
Hamamelis 4 Soothing haemorrhoidal preparations 38 0.11 0.00 0.03 3.21
Doxycycline monohydrate 8 Tetracyclines 321 0.02 0.00 0.01 3.18

Prescribing where The Hawthorns Surgery is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Potassium permanganate 0 Oxidisers and dyes 3 0.00 0.94 0.22 -4.23
    Ispaghula husk 133 Bulk-forming laxatives 177 0.75 0.96 0.07 -2.93
    Warfarin sodium 7 Oral anticoagulants 1,362 0.01 0.24 0.11 -2.14
    Amlodipine 1,950 Calcium-channel blockers 3,734 0.52 0.76 0.11 -2.07
    Donepezil hydrochloride 8 Drugs for dementia 57 0.14 0.49 0.18 -1.90
    Sildenafil (Erectile Dysfunction) 303 Drugs for erectile dysfunction 506 0.60 0.77 0.09 -1.82
    Prednisolone 1 Copound haemorrhoidal preparations with corticosteroid 147 0.01 0.43 0.24 -1.77
    Naproxen 514 Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs 986 0.52 0.69 0.10 -1.69
    Cabergoline 5 Bromocriptine and other dopaminergic drugs 12 0.42 0.86 0.27 -1.63
    Sodium picosulfate 0 Bowel cleansing preparations 1 0.00 0.69 0.43 -1.61