Across the health system | A question to investigate
Give specialists a clearer view of the organisational question.
An antimicrobial stewardship team needs information that supports careful review under real service pressures. More charts do not automatically create more useful decisions. Our proposed PHARMORIS evaluation concerns the preparation of an organisational stewardship brief for a defined question, such as the completeness of a review process or the implementation of an agreed policy. It would support source checking and coordination while keeping diagnosis, prescribing and clinical interpretation with qualified professionals. The incentive is a more usable review, not indiscriminate reduction of antimicrobial use.
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Begin with the purpose of the programme.
NICE's stewardship guidance and the UKHSA Start smart then focus toolkit provide the national context (NICE, n.d.; UKHSA, n.d.). A local evaluation should state what the team wants to improve and why the selected information is relevant. The scope might concern whether an agreed review is documented and how outstanding work is escalated. It should not assume that fewer prescriptions or a lower purchasing cost is always better care. The organisational question needs clinical ownership so a convenient measure cannot quietly become the purpose of the programme.
Use a denominator that means something.
Activity changes can reflect case mix, admissions, service reconfiguration, recording or supply. The proposed analysis would establish which of these can be examined and which remain unknown. Define the population, period and unit before displaying a trend. Compare like with like where possible and label gaps clearly. A source-linked brief should help reviewers question an apparent change rather than imply that a line moving down proves better stewardship. The evidence needed to explain the trend may be different from the evidence that first reveals it.
A process-review measure might examine documented reviews among the locally defined episodes due for review, rather than using all prescriptions as the denominator. Missing documentation and a documented decision not to change treatment should remain different observations. The responsible specialists must define the criterion and interpret it. This is a way to make an organisational audit question explicit, not a software rule for determining whether an individual antimicrobial course should continue or stop.
Keep recommendations distinct from observations.
A recorded process measure, a specialist interpretation and a proposed improvement should be presented separately. This lets the reviewer see which statements follow directly from the information and which require professional judgement. A preparation tool should not turn incomplete organisational data into patient-specific treatment advice. The proposed brief would also identify where a source or local policy has changed. Maintaining that distinction is central to commercial usefulness: a faster draft is valuable only if specialists can understand and challenge its reasoning.
Test one bounded review task.
A first PHARMORIS evaluation could use public guidance, approved local process documents and synthetic or appropriately aggregated examples. Compare preparation of a stewardship review brief with the existing audit or meeting pack. Specialists would define critical facts, missing information and unacceptable inferences before assessing the outputs. The initial scope would exclude live clinical recommendations and changes to prescribing systems. It would test preparation quality and effort, while preserving the team's established audit, clinical governance and escalation responsibilities.
Make the review useful to the specialist.
An investment case gets stronger when it explains the conditions for repetition. Make the next commitment depend on evidence.
An antimicrobial stewardship team wants to review how a defined service operates without encouraging a predetermined prescribing outcome. Clinical appropriateness cannot be reduced to a commercial activity target.
Supports an investable boundary: suitable now, suitable after a defined dependency, unsuitable under present conditions or still unknown.
What would we need to understand?
- Defined stewardship question and setting
- Relevant current guidance and denominators
- Authorised aggregate observations
- Specialist interpretation and review process
Constructed decision example | No customer results are shown.
Measure the review that professionals have to do.
Potential outcomes include important context correctly represented, denominator errors, unsupported conclusions, source traceability and total preparation plus checking time. Include examples where the information is incomplete or where a trend has several plausible explanations. A useful output may be a better question for further investigation rather than an immediate action. Any later claim about prescribing quality, resistance or patient outcomes would require a suitable study and specialist interpretation. Those results cannot be inferred from the quality of a draft organisational brief.
Stop when a metric becomes an unsafe instruction.
Stop if the draft suggests that an individual treatment should change, omits relevant context or treats a crude reduction in use as a clinical benefit. Agree tolerances for correction burden and incomplete source coverage in advance. If the evaluation shows that the team already prepares the material efficiently, a new tool may add little value. A credible commercial proposition must accept that possibility. The result should guide investment towards an actual preparation problem rather than create demand by criticising work that already functions well.
How a pathway earns its place.
Pallavi Dawda explains the development of Pharmacy First pathways in the original December 2023 webinar. A historical account of the approach, rather than current clinical instruction.
Community Pharmacy England | Uploaded 18 December 2023
Pallavi Dawda talks about the development of the Pharmacy First service clinical pathways and PGDs
Community Pharmacy England (2023) | 8 min 24 sec
Loads the YouTube player when you choose to watch.
Medicines context photograph | Source
Community Pharmacy England (2023) | Original film | Historical educational context
Current service guidance | Current Pharmacy First service documents
Published by Community Pharmacy England. Included as an external reference; no endorsement of NEUVIOR or PHARMORIS is implied.
Bring the next stewardship meeting question.
An antimicrobial pharmacist, clinical lead and audit representative can define a recurring review task and the standards its output must meet. We can discuss whether a focused comparison is feasible with permitted material. PHARMORIS remains in development; this page describes a proposed organisational application, not a clinical prescribing product or a demonstrated stewardship outcome. The potential value is time and attention directed towards a more inspectable review, with a clear decision about whether further evidence and development are justified.
Sources and further reading
NICE (n.d.) Antimicrobial stewardship, NG15. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng15 (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
UKHSA (n.d.) Start smart then focus toolkit. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/antimicrobial-stewardship-start-smart-then-focus/start-smart-then-focus-antimicrobial-stewardship-toolkit-for-inpatient-care-settings (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
Another useful angle.
- A referral sent is not the same as a service delivered.
The NHS Discharge Medicines Service connects hospital discharge information with community pharmacy support.
- Give the committee a brief it can interrogate.
A formulary committee needs evidence it can question, not another confident summary that hides the difficult parts.
- A pilot should leave you with a decision.
A technology pilot can consume months and still leave a team unsure whether to continue.














