Sulfadiazine items per 1000 patients

Below are the database queries which are used to create this measure. These are run against a copy of the BSA prescribing data which we store in Google BigQuery. We're working on making our BigQuery tables publicly available at which point it will be possible to run and modify these queries yourself. But even where code and database queries are not directly useable by others we believe it is always preferable to make them public.

Description Number of items for sulfadiazine per 1000 patients
Why it matters There have been case reports of selection errors between sulfadiazine and sulfasalazine - two look-alike sound-alike (LASA) drugs. Sulfasalazine is most commonly prescribed in primary care to manage rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, whereas sulfadiazine is a specialist antibacterial drug not usually prescribed in primary care. Prescribing the wrong drug can lead to ineffective treatment and potential harm, along with unnecessary costs, especially given the high cost of sulfadiazine.

Any prescribing on this measure could prompt investigation to ascertain if sulfadiazine was prescribed in error.
Tags Safety
Implies cost savings No
Authored by andrew.brown
Checked by richard.croker
Last reviewed 2024-07-30
Next review due 2026-07-30
History View change history on GitHub →

Numerator SQL

SELECT
     CAST(month AS DATE) AS month,
     practice AS practice_id,
     SUM(items) AS numerator
 FROM hscic.normalised_prescribing
 WHERE bnf_code IN ("0501080J0AAABAB", "0501080J0AAAHAH")
 GROUP BY month, practice_id

Denominator SQL

SELECT
     CAST(month AS DATE) AS month,
     practice AS practice_id,
     SUM(total_list_size / 1000.0) AS denominator
 FROM hscic.practice_statistics
 GROUP BY month, practice_id
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