Influence of simple computerized feedback on prescription charges in an ambulatory clinic. A randomized clinical trial

• HIT Description: Computer generated summary of ambulatory prescription drug charges. More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Assess the effect of feedback of doctor specific prescribing charges on prescribing charges for outpatients.
  
• Years of study: Published 1986.
  
• Study Design: Randomized clinical trial.
  
• Outcomes: Cost of the intervention and prescription cost.
  

• Settings: The general medical clinic of a university affiliated urban county hospital.
• Intervention: Monthly feedback of a computer generated summary of the prior months outpatient prescription charges given to medical house-staff physicians. This was compared to physicians receiving no feedback.
• Evaluation Method: Costs of prescriptions and number of prescriptions per patients along with a survey of attitude and knowledge.
• Description: A computer program designed to abstract the hospital's billing data and organize the information into a usable form for feedback.
• Financial Context: The implementation occurred in a county general hospital.
• Costs: Cost of writing the program was estimated at 17 hours. Monthly feedback required 30 minutes research assistant time and 23 minutes of computer time.
• Changes in healthcare costs: The mean charge per prescription and the mean pharmacy charge per patient began to decline late in the intervention, more than six months after implementation. There was a 6.5% reduction in mean charge per prescription and a 9.7% reduction for total charge per patient. The authors estimate that, even accounting for the cost of the implementation, that the intervention saved $6,500 per month.