PHOLY - DRUG UTILIZATION IN CIVIL HOSPICE S OF LYON - A PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGIC INVESTIGATION - METHODOLOGY AND DIFFICULTIES

PHOLY is a study of drug Prescription in HoOspices civils of LYon by a transverse and descriptive survey. It aims at studying the methodolog y of such an investigation in a large university medical centre, elabo rating a methodology for continuous assessment of prescribing, compari ng prescriptions with scientific knowledge and identifying specific th erapies. We collected 1525 questionnaires from 4333 hospitalized patie nts in 11 hospitals (prescriptions and indications). The main difficul ties we encountered concerned communications (4 letters), fewer questi onnaires collected than expected (1525/3018), many missing data, and t he lack of a specific budget, thus allowing only partial data exploita tion and control. This study revealed many problems such as relevant i nformation for physicians, training and management of investigators, c ontrol, data capture and analysis. However, a prescription study may b e possible with limited means.