Measuring and modifying hospital drug use.
OBJECTIVE: Various methods are available to quantitate medicinal drug use in hospitals. These represent a hierarchy of clinical specificity, complexity and cost of acquisition. Similarly, various strategies and methods are available to modify prescribing patterns. The objectives of this study are to illustrate these processes of measurement of drug use and modification of prescribing patterns using specific examples derived from practice at three major Australian teaching hospitals over 15 years. DESIGN, SETTING, MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Methods to measure and modify drug usage in the three hospitals are outlined and 12 examples are presented by specific drug or drug category. Each example includes details of the methods used to detect inappropriate drug use (pharmacy purchases, pharmacy issues, prescription analysis, clinical record review, performance and outcome assessment), the intervention strategies used (re-educative, persuasive, facilitative, power), the methods employed to alter drug prescribing and the relative effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the interventions. RESULTS: Readily available, relatively cheap quantitative methods provide significant information and an efficient basis for planning definitive studies, and substantial modification of prescription patterns is possible through the strategic use of limited manpower and resources.