Correlation between prescribing quality and pharmaceutical costs in English primary care: national cross-sectional analysis

摘要

Pharmaceutical costs and quality-indicator performance vary substantially between English general practices, but little is known about the relationship between pharmaceutical costs and quality. This relationship is interesting because it provides some detail on the cost-effectiveness of primary care prescribing in relation to:encouraging high-benefit prescribing, in which the health benefits are substantial and likely to outweigh the health risks; avoiding low-benefit prescribing, in which the health benefits are small and may not outweigh the health risks; and avoiding high-cost prescribing of expensive brand drugs rather than cheaper effective alternatives.