A study of prescription errors in South Indian City, Karnataka- An observational study

Abstract

A prescription is a written order to provide instructions regarding patient medications by the physician. Prescription include directions for the pharmacist to dispense the medication, directions for the patient regarding administration of drugs. Patient demographics and prescriber details are the legal requirements of the prescription writing.An observational study was conducted and data collection forms were used to collect the information from the patient. Confidentiality was maintained to secure the patient information, prescription details, throughout the study. All the prescriptions are analyzed for general details, medical components, and legal requirements. The data obtained were summed up and simple statistical analysis was performed to draw the results. All the prescriptions had general details mentioned in it.The mentioning of demographic details in prescription were found to be 48.07%.The clarity of the prescription related to legibility of handwriting was achieved in 92.24%.Poly-therapy was observed in 73 prescriptions. Most of the prescriptions did not provided description on the direction on usage of medications.Our study highlights the need to train prescribing doctors on writing rational prescriptions for quality improvement.