DETERMINATION OF ERRORS IN HAND WRITTEN PRESCRIPTIONS OF A TERTIARY CARE UNIT

The prescription of appropriate medical treatment ensures better outcomes in disease management. Error in the medicine prescription abundantly available in the literary references of the world which needs proper improvement and it is an area of concern for healthcare department. Prescriptions received by the nearby pharmacies of a tertiary care unit analyzed the noncompliance of such prescriptions for the error identification. A cross-sectional survey completed to determine errors in hand-written prescriptions of DHQ hospital Gujranwala on a total of three-hundred cases in the time period of three weeks. These cases were visiting nearby medical stores and pharmacies. We reviewed and analyzed the handwritten prescriptions. Percentage of incompleteness and illegibility was very high. In most of the prescriptions patient’s sex and address was missing. We then set a minimum criteria consisting of the key elements of prescription i-e diagnosis, legibility and directions for drug usage. But out of 300 prescriptions we collected, only 140 samples met this criteria. The drug prescription was more the recommended drug average maximum limit according to the criteria set by WHO. About (98.7%) prescriptions had brand name with the name of the medicine and also failed to meet the legal considerations of prescription process. This implementations is a genuine concern and calls for monitoring and awareness to reduce such malpractices in the error-free medicine prescription