BACKGROUND: There is a small, but growing body of literature highlighting inequities in GP practice prescribing rates for many drug therapies. The aim of this paper is to further explore the equity of prescribing for five major CHD drug groups and to explain the amount of variation in GP practice prescribing rates that can be explained by a range of healthcare needs indicators (HCNIs). METHODS:...

Inappropriate antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance are now major global issues. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes are increasingly being used to optimize antibiotic prescribing in acute care. The central tenet of these programmes tends to be policy and guidelines aimed at prescribers. However, rules and guidelines alone may not be sufficient to bring about effective and sustainable optim...

BACKGROUND Both the government and the pharmaceutical industry are interested in increasing the use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. The reaction on the part of general practitioners is more circumspect. AIM To investigate whether fundholding or dispensing status and patient exemption from, or prepayment of prescription charges influence the behaviour of general practitioners with respect...

OBJECTIVE Off-label prescribing of medications, polypharmacy, and other questionable prescribing practices have led investigators to examine a large VA pharmacy database to determine if physician prescribing decisions appear reasonable. METHOD The current study addresses the question of physician prescribing of atypical antipsychotics in 34,925 veterans with schizophrenia, using a series of s...

BACKGROUND Primary care pediatricians increasingly care for children's mental health problems, but little is known about practice-level variation in diagnosis and psychotropic medication prescribing practices. METHODS This retrospective review of electronic heath records from 43 US primary care practices included children aged 4 to 18 years with ≥1 office visit from January 1, 2009, to June 3...

BACKGROUND Research literature consistently documents that scientifically based therapeutic recommendations are not always followed in the hospital or in the primary care setting. Currently, there is evidence that some general practitioners in Australia are not prescribing appropriately for patients diagnosed with 1) hypertension (HT) and 2) chronic heart failure (CHF). The objectives of this s...

BACKGROUND In clinical trials, the potential of point-of-care (POC) C-reactive protein (CRP) tests was demonstrated in decreasing antibiotic prescribing in adults with acute cough in general practice, but effects of implementation are unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine the overall effect of POC CRP testing on antibiotic prescribing rate in general practice. METHODS In an observational study, G...

Of all the activities that take place in general practice, prescribing has the greatest potential to produce health benefits or to cause harm. Therefore, indicators of appropriateness of prescribing should have a central place in evaluating the performance of general practitioners and encouraging improvements in the quality of care. It is surprising, therefore, that little research has been don...

Practice nurses are defined as those nurses who work in general practices and are employed by GPs.This includes nurses who have gained further qualifications and are working as nurse practitioners and minor illness specialist nurses. Despite the success of nurse-led services in primary care, the move into extended nurse prescribing has not been as high as predicted. A questionnaire survey of al...