ABSTRACT
This study assessed whether training physicians on the Practical Approach to Lung Health (PAL) reduces drug prescribing and the cost of drugs prescribed to respiratory patients in the primary health care setting. Data were compared before and after training general practitioners on standard guidelines for case management of respiratory conditions in primary care. A total of 56 general practitioners practising in 25 health centres in 3 out of 12 governorates of Jordan participated in both the baseline survey (n = 6260 respiratory patients) and the impact survey (n = 2709 patients). Training in PAL decreased by 12.2% the number of drugs prescribed per patient, increased the prescription of inhaled medications and reduced the mean cost of a drug prescription per patient by 8.7%.
Subject(s)
Drug Prescriptions/statistics & numerical data , Education, Medical, Continuing/organization & administration , Family Practice , Lung Diseases/drug therapy , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Primary Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Adult , Chi-Square Distribution , Drug Costs/statistics & numerical data , Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data , Family Practice/education , Family Practice/statistics & numerical data , Feasibility Studies , Female , Guideline Adherence/statistics & numerical data , Health Care Surveys , Humans , Jordan/epidemiology , Lung Diseases/epidemiology , Male , Practice Patterns, Physicians'/statistics & numerical data , Program Evaluation , Statistics, NonparametricABSTRACT
This study assessed whether training physicians on the Practical Approach to Lung Health [PAL] reduces drug prescribing and the cost of drugs prescribed to respiratory patients in the primary health care setting. Data were compared before and after training general practitioners on standard guidelines for case management of respiratory conditions in primary care. A total of 56 general practitioners practising in 25 health centres in 3 out of 12 governorates of Jordan participated in both the baseline survey [n = 6260 respiratory patients] and the impact survey [n = 2709 patients]. Training in PAL decreased by 12.2% the number of drugs prescribed per patient, increased the prescription of inhaled medications and reduced the mean cost of a drug prescription per patient by 8.7%
