IRRATIONAL DRUG USE;

EVALUATION OF PRESCRIBING TRENDS IN A HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate drug prescribing practices at Medical Unit, ICU and
Nephrology Unit, using WHO prescribing indicators, in order to promote rational drug use.
Study Design: A retrospective cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Bolan
Medical Complex Hospital Quetta, Pakistan, from July to December 2015. Methodology: Drug
prescribing trends in 218 prescriptions were scrutinized thoroughly. Data was collected by
well-trained pharmacy personals by using prescriptions and prescription registration books
of patients. Descriptive statistics were calculated on SPSS version 16.0. Results: The average
number of drugs prescribed per prescription were 4.11 whereas, WHO recommends that it
should be 2.00 or less. Alternatively, percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and from
an essential drug list were 14.73% and 78.35% while, in accordance with WHO it must be 100%
and 70% correspondingly. On the other hand, percentage of encounters having antibiotics or
injections prescribed were 18.33% and 32.79% but according to WHO it should be20% or less
and 10%respectively. Nevertheless, proper diagnosis was stated in 89.44% of prescriptions
and 72.11% prescriptions had complete relevance between treatment and diagnosis. Along
with, appropriate drug dosage and their administration was instituted in 65.16% of prescriptions
and 73.21% of prescriptions had accurate duration of therapy. Conclusion: The prescribing
patterns in Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta reflect the practice of polypharmacy, which
is more of an irrational type in contrast to WHO recommendations. Thus, there is an urge to
bring about some interventions to improve the pharmacotherapy.