The problem

Our trust spend on drugs is approximately £275m per annum, which is 17% of overall spend. Information provided to our clinical support units (CSUs) for them to be sighted on the financial implications of prescribing decisions was prepared quarterly using the trust’s pharmacy system. This required manipulation and intervention by the finance team to present outputs in a meaningful format, plus pharmacy involvement to add further analysis and context. As the trust reports its financial results on working day one, these arrangements were time consuming and historical, providing less time to act upon and to influence CSU drug prescribing habits and costs.

The challenge

How might we move to timely reporting of monthly and ad hoc drug spend tailored to a CSU, but also allow instant drill down analysis into specific issues/ trends or spikes?

The outputs

1. Standard report templates produced after working day one close
2. Output includes tariff and non-tariff spend by speciality
3. Top 10 drug spend report for non-tariff
4. Non-tariff drug trend spend analysis with pharmacy explanatory commentary
5. Top 10 drug spend report for tariff drugs
6. Tariff drug spend analysis with pharmacy explanatory commentary
7. Analysis on CSU specific waste reduction schemes associated with drug spend.

The outcomes

1. Joint engagement of pharmacy and finance staff resulting in a better understanding of issues driving CSU drug expenditure.
2. Time saved producing outdated information has been released to understand and influence expenditure.
3. Empowered finance and pharmacy teams are able to drill down into information without reliance on the JAC system manager.