BACKGROUND In 2007, Alberta became the first Canadian jurisdiction to grant pharmacists a wide range of prescribing privileges. Our objective was to understand what factors influence pharmacists' adoption of prescribing using a model for the Diffusion of Innovations in healthcare services. METHODS Pharmacists participated in semi-structured telephone interviews to discuss their prescribing pr...

Prescription drug spending is growing faster than any other sector of healthcare. However, very little is known about patterns of prescribing and cost of prescribing between general practices. In this study, we examined variation in prescription rates and prescription costs through time for 55 GP surgeries in Northern Ireland Western Health and Social Care Trust. Temporal changes in variability...

British Journal of General Practice, May 2014 259 pRevalenCe, natuRe, and Causes of pResCRIbIng eRRoRs In geneRal pRaCtICe Over the past 10 years our team has been involved in a wide range of studies of prescribing in general practice, but one we feel that has really made a difference is the PRACtICe study, which was funded by the General Medical Council.1,2 In this study we took a sample of 15...

Interest is resurging in the problems relating to the quality of patient care. This paper provides a comparative perspective on this issue from a five-country physician survey conducted in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2000. Physicians in all five countries reported a recent decline in quality of care and concerns with how hospitals address medical...

OBJECTIVES To describe ambulatory care clinicians' perspectives on the effect of e-prescribing systems on patient safety outcomes. STUDY DESIGN We used a mixed-method study of clinicians and staff in 64 practices using one of six e-prescribing technologies in six U.S. states. METHODS We used clinician surveys (web-based and paper) and focus groups to obtain clinicians' perspectives on e-pre...

BACKGROUND prescribing in nursing homes is frequently suboptimal. Indicators to measure prescribing quality, including appropriateness of prescribing certain drugs or combinations of drugs, to hospital inpatients have been developed previously. OBJECTIVE to modify prescribing indicators, including appropriateness of prescribing algorithms developed in the hospital setting, for use in nursing ...

OBJECTIVE Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) may substantially improve health care quality and efficiency, but the available systems are complex and their heterogeneity makes comparing and evaluating them a challenge. The authors aimed to develop a conceptual framework for anticipating the effects of alternative designs for outpatient e-prescribing systems. DESIGN Based on a literature re...

CONTEXT Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting. AIMS The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them. SETTINGS AND DESIGN A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria. SUBJECTS AND MET...

Unlike sub-optimal prescribing, rational prescribing, coupled with certain indicators, is associated with improved safety in drug use in terms of selecting appropriate drug for prescribing, better quality of life for patients and cost-effective care. Medication prescribing is a relatively unexplored area of research in Saudi Arabia and until now most studies have been in the secondary and terti...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on educational interventions to improve prescribing and identify educational methods that improve prescribing competency in both medical and non-medical prescribers. DESIGN A systematic review was conducted. The databases Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), EMBASE and CINAHL were searched for articles in English published between January 1...