ScriptSwitch helps PCTs to indicator success
Primary Care Trusts using an innovative prescribing tool from ScriptSwitch have outperformed the national average in the new NHS productivity metrics for increasing low cost statin prescribing, the company has today revealed.
In the first ever statin prescribing indicator revealed this month, 78% of PCTs using ScriptSwitch performed better than the national average – with one third performing in the top 25% in the country.
The ScriptSwitch application has helped customers outperform the national average by offering clear and unbiased advice to clinicians at the point of prescribing based on input from their PCT. The system is designed to help them make the best possible prescribing decision using the most relevant and accurate information available.
ScriptSwitch’s head of medicines management Martyn Carroll said: “These findings are a clear indication that the ScriptSwitch system is helping PCTs to improve efficiency by enabling prescribers to comply with NICE guidance and to keep statin prescribing costs down.
“Statin prescribing has increased significantly in recent years and is a drug where there are large cost differentials between competing products. It’s a prime example of the power of ScriptSwitch in helping to improve care whilst at the same time saving money which can be reinvested in improving other services.”
The productivity metric indicators provide a national set of information that allows PCTs to benchmark performance and identify areas for further development. The indicators are also to be used to highlight variation in performance across the NHS, identify savings opportunities from improving savings in key areas, and inform improvement in planning and monitoring.
The indicator for increasing low cost statin prescribing measures the percentage of prescriptions written for simvastatin and pravastatin. This is given as a percentage of the total value of statin prescribing. A high proportion of prescribing for these statins will mean lower prescribing costs.
Research by ScriptSwitch suggests that its product can provide a cost benefit for an average practice in the UK of around £35,000 per annum – or a potential benefit in excess of £300 million to the wider NHS. So far more than 60 PCOs have signed up with ScriptSwitch, with many more in discussions with the company.
-ENDS-
ScriptSwitch helps PCTs to indicator success
Primary Care Trusts using an innovative prescribing tool from ScriptSwitch have outperformed the national average in the new NHS productivity metrics for increasing low cost statin prescribing, the company has today revealed.
