ASSESSMENT OF PRESCRIPTION PATTERN AND PRESCRIPTION ERRORS USING THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DRUG USE INDICATORS IN LADY READING HOSPITAL PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES: To assess and evaluate prescription pattern and prescription errors using World Health Organization (WHO) drug use indicators in the medical ward of Leady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan. METHODS: This retrospective study of 200 in-patient’s prescriptions was conducted to investigate the WHO drug use indicators (average number of drugs prescribed per prescription, percentage of prescriptions encounter with an injection(s) prescribed, percentage of prescriptions encounter with an antibiotic(s) prescribed, percentage of drugs prescribed with generic names, percentage of drugs prescribed from the WHO’s Essential Drug List (EDL), drugs prescribed from the National Essential Drug List (NEDL) and prescriptions errors. RESULTS: Drugs prescribed for 200 admitted patients were 1410 and average number of drugs prescribed per prescription were 7.05 (n=1410). Prescriptions with an injection(s) prescribed were 704/1410 (49.9%), prescriptions with an antibiotic(s) prescribed were 241/1410 (17.1%), prescriptions with drugs prescribed by generic names was none. Number of drugs prescribed from the WHO EDL were 704 (49.9%). NEDL was not available. A total of 572 (40.6%) errors in prescription writing were observed including 211/572 (36.9%) errors having absent strength of drugs, 267/572 (46.7%) contains an illegible hand writing prescriptions, 48(n=572; 8.4%) prescriptions have missing frequency of drugs and 46 (n=572; 8.04%) prescriptions had improper abbreviations. Decision errors were observed in 703 (n=1410;49.86%) cases for drug-drug interactions. CONCLUSION: Illegible hand writing, absence of strength of drugs, no mentioning of frequency of drugs and improper abbreviations were main types of prescription errors while error in drug-drug interactions was the main decision error in our study. KEY WORDS:Medical Errors (MeSH); Medication Errors (MeSH); Inappropriate Prescribing (MeSH); Prescription Errors (Non-MeSH); Prescription Pattern (Non-MeSH); Drug Use Indicators (Non-MeSH); Drug-Drug Interactions (Non-MeSH)