New mechanism to identify cost savings in English NHS prescribing: minimising 'price per unit', a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Minimising prescription costs while maintaining quality is a core element of delivering high-value healthcare. There are various strategies to achieve savings, but almost no research to date on determining the most effective approach. We describe a new method of identifying potential savings due to large national variations in drug cost, including variation in generic drug cost, and compare these with potential savings from an established method (generic prescribing).

Methods

We used English National Health Service (NHS) Digital prescribing data, from October 2015 to September 2016. Potential cost savings were calculated by determining the price per unit (eg, pill, millilitre) for each drug and dose within each general practice. This was compared against the same

SUBMITTER: Croker R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5829890 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature