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Prototype Prescribing Outlier Dashboard for Heatherlands Med Ctr

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 Heatherlands Med Ctr is higher than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Linezolid 1 Some other antibacterials 1 1.00 0.01 0.07 14.17
Dexamethasone phosphate 19 Use of corticosteroids 462 0.04 0.00 0.00 11.03
Dithranol 8 Preparations for psoriasis 115 0.07 0.00 0.01 7.56
Fluocinolone acetonide 43 Topical corticosteroids 689 0.06 0.01 0.01 6.28
Sodium fusidate 37 Antibacterial preparations also used systemically 106 0.35 0.02 0.05 6.24
Liquid paraffin 55 Emollient bath and shower preparations 122 0.45 0.03 0.07 5.97
Spironolactone with loop diuretics 8 Potassium sparing diuretics and compounds 18 0.44 0.01 0.08 5.75
Methyl salicylate 30 Rubefacients, topical NSAIDS, capsaicin and poultice 494 0.06 0.00 0.01 4.88
Trospium chloride 101 Drugs for urinary frequency enuresis and incontinence 410 0.25 0.04 0.04 4.85
Cabergoline 7 Dopaminergic drugs used in parkinsonism 210 0.03 0.00 0.01 4.20

Prescribing where Heatherlands Med Ctr is lower than most

BNF Chemical Chemical Items BNF Subparagraph Subparagraph Items Ratio Mean std Z_Score Plots
Water for injection 4 Electrolytes and water 27 0.15 0.82 0.25 -2.73
Hydrocortisone 0 Copound haemorrhoidal preparations with corticosteroid 38 0.00 0.57 0.24 -2.35
    Oral rehydration salts 1 Oral sodium and water 10 0.10 0.71 0.29 -2.08
    Moxonidine 0 Centrally-acting antihypertensive drugs 4 0.00 0.65 0.33 -1.95
      Clobetasol propionate 16 Topical corticosteroids 689 0.02 0.08 0.03 -1.89
      Emollient bath and shower preparations 31 Emollient bath and shower preparations 122 0.25 0.63 0.21 -1.78
      Bisoprolol fumarate 1,354 Beta-adrenoceptor blocking drugs 2,632 0.51 0.65 0.08 -1.75
      Nicotine 1 Nicotine dependence 10 0.10 0.65 0.33 -1.65
      Pregabalin 332 Control of epilepsy 2,297 0.14 0.27 0.08 -1.60
      Estriol 7 Preparations for vaginal/vulval changes 48 0.15 0.45 0.20 -1.51