An Observational Study to Evaluate Prescription Writing Practices in OPD Services of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, South India

Abstract

Background: Evaluation in health program is an integral part of a professional role. The idea is to compare the performance with the standard. Prescription writing is an important component of medication safety as medication errors most frequently occur during prescribing by physicians. Prescription audit is a part of the medical audit which helps to observe, assess and suggest modifications,if need in the practice of prescribing by consultant physicians. Therefore, this study seeks to determine the prescription writing practices in compliance with guidelines given by Medical Council of India (MCI).Aim: To study the prescription writing practices in OPD services of a tertiary care teaching hospital, South India. Methodology: The study was cross sectional and descriptive type and was conducted from June toNovember 2018. A total number of 1620 prescriptions of Out-patient departments were photographed, scrutinized and evaluated. Selected prescriptions were assessed for parameters given by Medical Council of India (MCI). The data obtained were analyzed in Microsoft excel and valid results and conclusion were drawn. Results:Out of 1620 prescriptions, 51.6% (837) were legible and 48.4% (783) were illegible. Out-Patient Registration number was missing in about 49.3% (798) of the prescriptions. In the prescription details, 75.7% (1227) of prescriptions showed route of administration and only 2.03% (33) used generic names. About 9.82% (159) and 48.89% (792) of the prescriptions didn’t have prescriber’s signature and Medical Council registration number respectively. Conclusion: Prescription auditing improves the quality of healthcare delivery. This study highlights the need to train the consultant physicians especially house surgeons and postgraduates on writing legible prescriptions for quality improvement.