OBJECTIVE To compare different indicators for assessing the quality of drug prescribing and establish their agreement in identifying doctors who may not adhere to treatment guidelines. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Data from 181 general practitioners (GPs) from The Netherlands. The case of asthma is used as an example because, in this area, different quality indicators exist whose validity is qu...

OBJECTIVE To reduce the probability of failure in the oral chemotherapy order, review and administration process and to reduce oral chemotherapy-related prescribing errors intercepted by clinical pharmacists prior to reaching the patient. DESIGN A before-and-after cohort study. SETTING A 719-bed multidisciplinary tertiary care institution with a pediatric division and an outpatient cancer c...

BACKGROUND Protected learning time (PLT) schemes have been set up in primary care across the UK. There is little published evidence of their effectiveness. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of a PLT intervention for general practice to increase prescribing of ramipril for prevention of cardiovascular outcomes. DESIGN Quasi-experimental, interrupted time series. SETTING Lincolnshire, UK....

AIM This paper is a report of a study to explore nurse prescribers' views on the role of inter-professional relationships and other means of support for nurse prescribing for patients in acute and chronic pain. BACKGROUND Research indicates that good team relationships are important for supporting nurse prescribing but that poor understanding of the role by other healthcare professionals can ...

BACKGROUND Shared care schemes have mainly centred on chronic diseases, such as asthma and diabetes. However, with increasing government emphasis on primary and secondary care integration and the effects of budget restraints, general practitioners (GPs) have been asked to take on the prescribing of specialist medicines. AIM To elicit the views and experiences of GPs and hospital doctors about...

BACKGROUND Benzodiazepines are often prescribed long-term inappropriately. We aimed to systematically review and meta-synthesise qualitative studies exploring clinicians' experiences and perceptions of benzodiazepine prescribing to build an explanatory model of processes underlying current prescribing practices. METHODS We searched seven electronic databases for qualitative studies in Western...

Background: Irrational prescribing of drugs is a major health problem in medical practice resulting in; ineffective treatment, development of antibiotic-resistant organisms, adverse effects and economic burden on patients and society. Objectives: The main objective of this study was rationalization of prescribing drugs and the specific objectives were to; assess the family physicians' prescribi...