PrescQIPP

Better value medicines: The use of data analytics to support medicines efficiencies

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Project summary

We identified that the existing functionality within our pharmacy stock control system did not provide pharmacy teams or the wider organisation with a clear, timely, and actionable view of medicines expenditure, usage trends, or cost drivers.

To address this gap, we developed a Trust‑wide Power BI dashboard that extracts and visualises data directly from the pharmacy stock control system. This was published across the organisation to enable budget holders and clinical teams to access and review their medicines usage information. Targeted training sessions were delivered, resulting in widespread adoption and a growing user base across clinical, operational, and managerial teams.

The dashboard has enabled more informed and consistent decision‑making, supporting changes in prescribing practice and helping to identify and address unwarranted variation across our three acute sites. These insights have directly contributed to improvements in clinical practice and the delivery of measurable financial efficiencies.

The data, used alongside other reporting tools such as the RxInfo suite of software, now informs the agenda for the Trust’s Better Value Medicines Group, led by the Pharmacy Operational Lead for Procurement. Meetings are fully data‑driven and focus on:

  • identifying opportunities for clinical practice change

  • highlighting unwarranted variation in prescribing practices

  • planning, tracking, and monitoring biosimilar switches to ensure timely implementation and maximisation of savings

This work has been driven by the combined expertise of our Pharmacy Healthcare analytics data analyst and Pharmacy Operational Lead for Procurement, with vital support from senior pharmacy technicians with responsibility for reporting.

As a result, this programme has embedded a strong culture of data‑driven decision‑making and continuous improvement and has exceeded the Trust’s medicines Cost Improvement Programme (CIP) target for two consecutive years.