Abstract

TO STUDY THE PRESCRIPTION PATTERN OF OUTPATIENT DEPARTMENT ON THE BASIS OF WHO GUIDELINES

P. R. Dhangar* and S. D. Patil

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rational use of drugs ensures good health practices and prevents unnecessary use of medicines like antimicrobials, injections and also promotes the use of generic medicines and drugs enlisted in the national essential medicine list. The objective was to conduct a prescription audit in outpatient attendees to minimize prescription errors and improve the quality of the prescriptions. Methods: The study was carried out at Out Patient Department of a private hospital. All prescriptions from different clinical departments were analyzed using the WHO prescribing indicators. Results: Analysis of prescription reveals a higher number of male patients as compared to female patients. The number of drugs per prescription was 3.41, the percentage of generic drugs used was 43.99%, the percentage of antibiotics was 52% while the percentage of prescription with an injection prescribed was 41% and the percentage of drugs prescribed from the essential medicine list was 47.21%. In the encounters, we found that 2% of prescriptions do not contain any drug whereas only 7% of prescriptions are based on mono-therapy while the rest have multiple drugs eliciting drug interactions. The study also confirms the usage of branded drugs is higher in comparison to generic drugs. Conclusions: The study encourages an overall rational utilization of drugs. Though prescription audit may enhance the quality of patient care and this could be an important tool for assessing the worth of good prescribing practice and help to identify and implement changes for better prescription practice and patient care management.

Keywords: Essential medicine, Outpatient prescriptions, Prescribing indicators, Prescription audit, WHO prescription indicators.