Activities to improve hospital prescribing

Abstract

Prescribing restrictions can effectively control drug use, but can also shift practice in unforeseen ways. Doctors must therefore be involved in any interventions to change their prescribing. Multifaceted interventions aimed at the barriers preventing good prescribing probably have the greatest chance of success. Interactive educational meetings are more influential than didactic meetings and one-to-one educational outreach visits are consistently effective. The implementation of guidelines should be supported with strategies such as systematic audit and feedback, active educational measures and mechanisms to ensure they are accessible at the point of prescribing.