Prescription Audit for WHO Prescribing Indicators and Prescription Errors in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aim: Our study aimed to audit prescriptions for the prescription indicators given by WHO and to analyze prescription errors, evaluating the frequency and types of prescription errors. Methodology: Prospective study was done in Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune, under Pharmacology Department in October 2020. The prescriptions from all the OPD (outpatient departments) were collected from the pharmacy store. Prescriptions for the follow-up medication and devoid of medicine were excluded from the study. Results: Total of 1451 errors were found from 400 collected prescriptions, out of which 324 (22.3%) were errors of omission and 145 (10.0%) were errors of commission related to drugs whereas 982 (67.7%) were the error of omission other than drug details. A total of 1257 drugs were prescribed making an average of 3.14 drugs per prescription, out of which 28.72% drugs were prescribed by generic name. About 34.0% of patients were prescribed antibiotics and 2.25% of patients were prescribed injectable drugs. All the drugs were prescribed from the National Essential Drug List (NEDL). Conclusion: The prescription audit showed that there is a need to train prescribing doctors as per the standard MMC and NMC guidelines for rational prescription writing to minimize the chance of major errors like not writing the dose of the drug, not writing it in capital letters, drug-related instructions, diagnosis and so on. The prescription audit should be carried out at regular intervals to improve prescription writing skills to establish a better healthcare system.