Auditing of outpatient prescriptions in selected primary healthcare centers in Tripoli, Libya

Abstract

Background Irrational prescribing is a worldwide issue. Prescription auditing can assist in identifying medication errors caused by inappropriate prescribing. It is a systematic tool for analyzing the quality of medical care, including diagnostic and treatment procedures. Objective The present study aimed to assess the prescription quality and prescribing trends in selected primary healthcare centers in Tripoli. Materials and methods The study was conducted in the outpatient department at selected primary healthcare centers for the period of 2 months from 1st Feb to 30th March 2023 and included a total of 214 prescriptions. All collected prescriptions were analyzed for the presence or absence of essential prescription components such as prescriber information, patient information, and drug details such as dosage form, strength, frequency, and dosage form. The observed data was presented in the form of a number and a percentage. Results and conclusion A total of 214 prescriptions were collected and analyzed, out of which 863 prescription writing errors were noted with an average of 4.03 errors per each prescription, among them 767 errors of prescriber omission and 96 of drug-related errors. Most of these omissions were due to failure in mentioning the patient’s address (n=211, 48.2%), followed by the prescriber’s specialization (n=143, 43.5%), and the prescriber’s name (n=112, 37.1%). Additionally, 96 omission errors related to drugs (0.44 errors per each prescription) were found being due to missing drug dosages (n=7, 7.3%) and strength of medication (n=10, 10.4%). The total number of drugs prescribed was 621, among them 129(20.8%) prescriptions were for analgesics, followed by 113(18.2%) were for antibiotics. There are some areas where the quality of prescription writing in the selected primary healthcare centers needs to be improved.