Computer based prescribing. Guidelines for GPs are being tested.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The choice of drugs to include in the GP's bag depends on the medical conditions likely to be met, the shelf-life of the products and their costs, the availability of ambulance paramedic cover and the proximity of the nearest hospital. Here, we update previous advice and suggest a list of medicines that GPs may wish to take with them on home visits for use in an emergency or other acute treatment. We include paediatric doses where appropriate and, whenever a medicine is first mentioned, our suggested formulation is given italicised and in brackets. We also enclose with this issue a card summarising parenteral doses of drugs for medical emergencies, which includes a table of mean weight for age.
Over a 15 month period, all the scripts written by doctors in the Episkopi Garrison Medical Centre, Cyprus, were analysed. A formulary was produced by using the most popular items in that 15 month period and tested in a one month trial period. The idea was to find a practical and efficient method of producing a 'basic' formulary to which items could be added or removed after discussion with colleagues.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
One function of drug formularies is to allow health care providers to exert some control over spending. Decisions about whether to include a given medication in a formulary are based on estimates of its costs and effectiveness, relative to other treatment strategies. These decisions are made from a societal perspective, as opposed to that of individual patients, which sometimes results in conflicts. The clinical response to a medication often varies widely among subjects, which means that a small subgroup of patients might benefit dramatically, while others with the same disease do not. The result would be that a drug might appear not to be cost effective in an economic analysis, even though it is of proven value for some patients. New and innovative medications are assessed according to high standards of cost effectiveness, even though established treatments are wasteful of valuable health care resources. Moreover, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) discriminate against certain patient groups, including those with diseases that are associated with a high morbidity but a low mortality. Such patients often incur high indirect costs, including loss of employment income and costs incurred by family caregivers that QALYs do not reflect. Therefore, even though QALYs are transparent and widely applicable, they are not necessarily appropriate in the evaluation of a particular therapeutic intervention. A new paradigm should be developed for evaluating emerging therapies. An example would be a risk-sharing approach, whereby the pharmaceutical industry and public insurers share in the costs and rewards of introducing new treatments. This would have implications for the prices charged for new medications.
Formularies have been developed in response to specific forces which have affected pharmaceutical utilization and costs. Specifically, this is in response to an increase in the aging population requiring more drugs, inflation in the acquisition cost of drugs, increasing utilization, and the introduction of new technology. Well-researched formularies will provide the drug therapy needs for 85-90% of the population. Patients unresponsive to listed formulary drugs may use nonformulary drugs if appropriate methods of authorization are instigated. Various types of formulary management exist: open, where they can be used as a guideline, and drug benefits are not limited to the formulary; restricted or closed, where only drugs on the formulary or those previously authorized will be paid for; incentive based, where patients pay a higher price for nonformulary drugs, and patient driven, where the patient holds a list of drugs they can be supplied with. Effective formulary performance requires the joint co-operation of the pharmacists, payers, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry, and patients. These clinically based formularies then form an important measure to control costs while providing quality care. This paper will discuss the advantages of a formulary, its development, administration, and management.
Drug formularies, designed to encourage more clinically effective and cost effective prescribing, are now in widespread use in the secondary care system in the UK. Amongst their disadvantages, formularies are expensive to produce and require regular updating and policing. In addition, formularies do not consider alternate non-prescribing cost containment measures, and over-rigid application of formulary systems may alienate senior medical staff. In order to maximize the acceptability of formularies to all doctors, it is essential that the local Drugs and Therapeutics Committee has wide representation and focuses on clinical efficacy rather than simply on cost. Realistically, it is important that formulary committees are sufficiently flexible to allow the introduction of innovative, albeit expensive, new compounds. Enforcement of formularies into general practice is not presently achievable, but many primary care teams, realizing the benefits, have successfully introduced their own formularies to improve clinical drug usage and cost containment. If a reduction in costs is the primary aim, the global introduction of formulary systems may not be the best solution, and specific targeting of drug therapy may prove a more effective alternative. Indeed, in the South Glamorgan Health Authority, the introduction of a targeting system for the ten therapeutic areas with the highest expenditure allowed substantial savings to be made.
In the UK, the drugs bill has almost trebled in the last 10 years and is consuming an increasing proportion of the total National Health Service spend. If the drugs bill can be limited, greater funds will be available for other areas of the health service. Therefore, cost containment measures which include prescribing from a formulary or generic prescribing are now widely encouraged. Prescribing analyses and cost trends data generated from pharmacists sending dispensed general practitioners' prescriptions to a central point for reimbursement are a valuable tool in the assessment of prescribing habits and can be used by general practitioners when preparing a formulary. In the West Midlands, such data have been used to identify areas of growth in cardiovascular drugs and problem areas where prescribing an expensive formulation has led to a dramatic increase in costs.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.