Document Detail


General practitioners' ranking of evidence-based prescribing quality indicators: a comparative study with a prescription database.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  16842397     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: To ensure that indicators for assessing prescribing quality are appropriate and relevant, physicians should be involved in their development. How general practitioners (GPs) rank these indicators is not fully understood. AIMS: (i) To determine how GPs in Ireland rank a set of evidence-based prescribing quality indicators in order of importance and relevance to their practice, and (ii) to compare the GPs' ranking of the defined set of indicators with actual prescribing practice using a prescription database. METHODS: A postal questionnaire was sent to 105 GPs, who were asked to rank a set of 11 prescribing quality indicators, identified from the literature from most to least important. The results were aggregated and a weighted score for each indicator determined. These same prescribing indicators were then applied to a prescription database to compare the ranking provided with actual prescribing practice. RESULTS: Eighty-six GPs (82%) returned the completed questionnaire. The higher ranks were for quality issues-use of inhaled corticosteroids, statins and benzodiazepines. Actual prescribing data showed prolonged use of benzodiazepines in over half of the prescriptions dispensed (n = 18 171), 52.48% (95% confidence interval 51.95, 53.01) and low usage of generic drugs, 17.78% (17.70, 17.90) despite their high ranking by the GPs. CONCLUSION: While GPs have diverse views about the value of different prescribing quality indicators, the results suggest that they do rank evidence-based guidelines on patient management highly, but those based on costs and less evidence the lowest. There was considerable divergence between theory and practice in the application of quality indices.
Authors:
Ifeanyi Okechukwu; Kathleen Bennett; John Feely
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  British journal of clinical pharmacology     Volume:  62     ISSN:  0306-5251     ISO Abbreviation:  Br J Clin Pharmacol     Publication Date:  2006 Aug 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2006-07-17     Completed Date:  2007-02-26     Revised Date:  2009-11-18    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7503323     Medline TA:  Br J Clin Pharmacol     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  218-24     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. okechuki@tcd.ie
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Databases, Factual
Drug Therapy / standards*
Evidence-Based Medicine*
Family Practice / standards
Female
Humans
Ireland
Male
Middle Aged
Physicians, Family / psychology*
Quality of Health Care / standards*
Comments/Corrections

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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