[PHOLY: A pilot study of drug utilization in civil hospices in Lyon - methodology and difficulties]

PHOLY is a study of drug Prescription in Hospices civils of LYon by a transverse and descriptive survey. It aims at studying the methodology of such an investigation in a large university medical centre, elaborating a methodology for continuous assessment of prescribing, comparing prescriptions with scientific knowledge and identifying specific therapies. We collected 1525 questionnaires from 4333 hospitalized patients in 11 hospitals (prescriptions and indications). The main difficulties we encountered concerned communications (4 letters), fewer questionnaires collected than expected (1525/3018), many missing data, and the lack of a specific budget, thus allowing only partial data exploitation and control. This study revealed many problems such as relevant information for physicians, training and management of investigators, control, data capture and analysis. However, a prescription study may be possible with limited means.