Patterns and Errors of Medication Prescription among Patients with Chronic Medical Diseases attending Medical Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Hospital in Ilorin, Nigeria
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Date
2024-02-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin
Abstract
A valid prescription is necessary for the
appropriate usage of drugs. Inappropriate medicine has
major consequences. Prescriptions written in medical
practice are more prone to prescription writing errors. It
is vital to promote rational drug use through
researching drug use patterns and prescription errors.
The goal of this study was to analyse prescription
practices and contribute to better drug utilization.
We did a retrospective study on prescriptions
st
generated in medical outpatient from 1 January, 2022
th
and 30 June, 2022. The prescriptions kept at the
pharmacy department during the period of study were
utilized to assess prescription patterns and errors. A
total of 1211 prescriptions were evaluated, with 4632
medicines prescribed. The average number of
medicines encountered per interaction was 3.82. There
were 1154 medications administered by generic name
(95.30%). In 1101 patient contacts, an antibiotic was
prescribed (90.91%), while an injectable was
administered in 88 encounters (7.27%). The essential
medication list contained 1092 (90.17%) of the
prescribed medicines. In 1211 prescriptions, 4963
errors of omission attributable to the physician were
identified, resulting in an average of 4.08 errors per
prescription.
There was inadequate compliance with World
Health Organization (WHO) prescribing indicators and
a significant rate of prescription errors. The
prescription patterns were not consistent with WHO
recommendations. The use of the Essential Drug List
(EDL), low rates of generic prescribing, excessive
antibiotic prescribing, and polypharmacy were all
serious issues.
Description
Keywords
utilization, Prescriptions, WHO recommendations, Essential drug list