| DOI: https://doi.org/10.14456/mujps.2016.13 | Pharm Sci Asia 2016; 43(3), 107-114 |
Assessment of prescribing practices through WHO prescribing indicators at nekemte health center, west ethiopiaB. Mosisa*, R. Sherefudin, G. Bayisa
- Department of Pharmacy, College of Medical and Health Sciences, Wollega University,Nekemte, Ethiopia, P.O.Box 395
The ultimate goal of drug utilization related studies are to figure out the actual practices on the ground, and comparison of that with set standard, so that improvement can be made to achieve maximum possible health outcome for a patient through rational prescribing. One of the players of this game to achieve this goal is prescribers on which this study spins. The objective of this study was to assess actual prescribing practice of drugs in Nekemte Health Center. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey which investigated the prescribing practices of prescribers using the World Health Organization (WHO) core prescribing indicators at Nekemte Health Center in west Ethiopia. 770 Prescriptions were retrospectively reviewed in outpatient pharmacy of the Health Center selected through systematic random sampling over the period from January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2015. Of all prescriptions, the mean number of drugs per prescriptions was 2.85, the generic name prescribing practices were 100%, and prescriptions carrying antibiotics were 67%, while those carrying injections were 9%. Out of all drugs prescribed in the Health Center, all were found in Ethiopian Standard Treatment Guideline (STG). But, 20% of drugs were with incorrect drug name and/or strength, 17% did not have the right doses, and 18.3% did not have the right frequency, while 23.3% of them did not have the right duration of treatment. The prescribing practices for antibiotic use and polypharmacy showed deviation from the standard recommended by WHO. These two commonly overused and high probability of drug side effect and interaction forms of drug therapy need to be regulated closely. Drug use evaluation should be done for some of the antibiotics to check whether they were appropriately prescribed or not. Injection use is high as the status of study area is health center. On the other hand, generic prescribing and prescribing from Essential Drug List (EDL) were not found to be a problem in this study. Wrong dose, frequency and duration of treatment are very high in this Health Center. Thus, especial training is required to curb these major problems to reduce the magnitude of their harm.
Keyword:
prescribing indicators, rational prescribing, prescribers, drug utilization.
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