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Background: Rational use of medicines promotes good health practices and prevents inappropriate use of medicines, polypharmacy, unnecessary use of antimicrobials, injections, and also encourages use of medicines from essential medicine list and dispensing by generic names. The aim of the study was to analyze the outpatient prescriptions of a tertiary care centre by utilizing World Health Organization (WHO) core drug use prescribing indicators.Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary care health setup at Puducherry, South India. Outpatient prescriptions from all the major clinical departments were analyzed using WHO prescribing indicators and they were compared with some similar studies.Results: The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.74. The percentage of prescriptions with antibiotics was 20.33% and the percentage of prescriptions with injections was 0.16%. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic names and from essential medicine list was 83.13% and 87.9 respectively. Further antibiotic utilization was found to be higher in the department of ENT (56.67%), respiratory medicine (45%) and surgery (40%). Percentage of drugs prescribed by generic names in pediatrics and respiratory medicine were found to be 67.88% and 65.27% and percentage of drugs prescribed from essential medicine list in dermatology was 69.62%.Conclusions: Prescription pattern followed in our Institute almost adheres to the guidelines laid down by the WHO. Moreover, it is also implied that a routine audit of this type should be done in health care setups to ensure that they adhere to the WHO guidelines for better health care.
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OBJECTIVE: To analyze the current situation of rational drug use in primary health care institutions of Jiangsu province, and to improve the rational use of drug there. METHODS: Multi-phase and stratified sampling. 4 127 prescriptions were sampled from 6 primary health care institutions in 3 cities of Jiangsu province on the 15th of every odd number month in 2016.The number of drugs per prescription, the prescription fee, the percentage of antibiotics, injections and essential drugs were used as the indicators. RESULTS: The average number of drugs per prescription is 2.32; the average prescription fee is 65.99 yuan; these two indicators are rational. The average percentage of antibiotics and injections are 35.67% and 36% respectively, which are in a high level. All the institutions have been equipped with essential drugs, however, the situation of drug supply still needs to be improved. The discrepancies among different regions are statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The unbalanced development among regions should be considered when establishing the rational drug use policy of primary health care institutions. The abuse of antibiotics and injections should be supervised in multiple approaches. The drug purchasing in primary health care institutions should be guaranteed, and the education and instruction to dual referral patients also need to be strengthened.
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Objective To achieve outpatient prescriptions audit before payment and dispensing ,optimize the dispensing process ,improve the ratio of qualified prescriptions and promote rational use of drugs .Methods Based on the Hospital Informa‐tion System (HIS) of Peking University Cancer Hospital ,a new computer system was developed for pharmacists to achieve prescriptions audit before payment and dispensing .Results Outpatient prescriptions audit was guaranteed by the new computer system ,the dispensing process was optimized and the role of pharmacists in prescriptions audit was ensured .Conclusion The ratio of unqualified prescriptions was reduced effectively ,and the safety and rationality of prescriptions was improved .Pharma‐cists should improve their professional knowledge to make the prescription audit more professional ,accurate and efficient .
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<b>Objective: </b>It is very important that, to avoid, pharmacists-check medication being taken by patient. In the Hokkaido University Hospital we used commercial drug identification software at the start of outpatient prescription identification duty and reported the outcome. Furthermore, we filled in another hand-written check sheet with the drug’s name, whether or not it is used in our hospital, alternative drugs, and the dosage and administration. Because of the risk of drugs being entered by mistake, we built a database for drug identification and distinguished the outpatient’s prescriptions. With this system it is possible integrate identification reports and check sheet using one style, automatically. We also to smoothly rationalize duties by planning correct communication between the medical staff. At the same time, we analyzed the case that was able to intervene in reasonable use of medical supplies with a past identification report as a result of pharmacists distinguishing outpatient prescriptions.<br><b>Design and Methods: </b>This system was constructed using Microsoft® Access, which is a general-purpose database software. Also, the medical supply database that we used for this system uses “Drugs in Japan Ethical Drugs DB (supervised by Drugs in Japan Forum)” published by JIHO Co., Ltd.<br><b>Results: </b>By using this system, we were able to reduce the time required to identify the drugs and make the report. The result of a questionnaire carried out on doctors and a nurses and medical staff revealed that more than 90% of the respondents claimed, “the report is easy to refer.” Likewise, we analyzed a report of the previous year and recognized that medical staff could not find the inappropriate use of prescriptions for outpatients in about 17.5%.<br><b>Conclusion: </b>This system improved the efficiency of outpatient prescriptions practices, and it became clear that it could be used convincingly as a tool to share appropriate drug information between medical staff and pharmacists, more precisely. In addition, feedback from medical staff suggested that it might prevent the risk of problems surrounding outpatient prescriptions, from the viewpoint of the pharmacist.