Brand Name Statin Prescribing in a Resident Ambulatory Practice: Implications for Teaching Cost-Conscious Medicine

Several national initiatives aim to teach high-value care to residents. While there is a growing body of literature on cost impact of physicians' therapeutic decisions, few studies have assessed factors that influence residents' prescribing practices.

We studied factors associated with intensive health care utilization among internal medicine residents, using brand name statin prescribing as a proxy for higher-cost care.

We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of statin prescriptions by residents at an urban academic internal medicine program, using electronic health record data between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011.

For 319 encounters by 90 residents, patients were given a brand name statin in 50% of cases. When categorized into quintiles, the bottom quintile of residents prescribed brand name statins in 2% of encounters, while the top quintile prescribed brand name statins in 98% of encounters. After adjusting for potential confounders, including patient characteristics and supervising attending, being in the primary care track was associated with lower odds (odds ratio [OR], 0.38; P  =  .02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.16-0.86), and graduating from a medical school with an above-average hospital care intensity index was associated with higher odds of prescribing brand name statins (OR, 1.70; P  =  .049; 95% CI, 1.003-2.88).

We found considerable variation in brand name statin prescribing by residents. Medical school attended and residency program type were associated with resident prescribing behavior. Future interventions should raise awareness of these patterns in an effort to teach high-value, cost-conscious care to all residents.