Assessing the Compliance of Outpatient Prescriptions to Trust Formulary and North West London Integrated Formulary: A Multisite Audit

Abstract

Abstract
A formulary is described as a list of medicines which functions to specify particular medications which under a policy, are approved to be prescribed. This study was carried out to assess compliance of outpatient prescriptions at a tertiary hospital with the hospital's formulary and North West London Integrated formulary. This was a prospective study design carried out across four outpatient pharmacy stores of a tertiary NHS hospital in London. Handwritten prescriptions were collected over 8 week days from 9am to 5pm and were assessed for compliance with the two formularies. High levels of compliance with the Trust formulary and North West London Integrated Formulary were obtained across specialties from the various study sites (98.4% and 98.6% compliance rates respectively). Only 14 (1.6%) drug items prescribed were not within the Trust formulary and 10 (1.4%) were not contained in the North West London Integrated Formulary. Dermatology clinic had the highest number (n= 6) of non Trust formulary items prescribed. Audit standards adopted for compliance with the Trust formulary and North West London Integrated Formulary were achieved. However, few clinics/specialties still prescribed drugs which were not contained in the Trust formulary, thus requiring interventions by the pharmacists. Similarly, some clinics prescribed drug items not contained in the North West London Integrated Formulary.