Compliance with prescription writing requirements and prescribing errors in outpatient depatment in Ilala municipal Hospital

Compliance with the prescription writing can be explained as the tendency to indicate all of the prescription requirements correctly and with accuracy. There are two types of prescribing errors. These are errors of omission and errors of` commission. Errors of omission include the prescription without patient`s name date name of the clinic or hospital where the prescription was issued and the route of administration dose. Frequency, dose strength and quantity supplied. Errors of` commission include the drug- drug interaction. wrong strength and wrong dosage form. The objective of this study was to assess the prescribing errors at the llala Municipal Hospital. A total of 524 prescriptions were screened in the Out—Patient Department pharmacy in which 399 prescriptions were of the GPD general clinic and l25 prescriptions were for the Mt Dar salaam City and Harvard project. The results of this study indicated that lt % of the prescriptions from the UPI) general clinic contained prescribing errors. Errors of omission related to the drugs contributed 84.2% of all errors and errors of commission contributed 12.8%. of all the errors of commission. Drug drug interaction contributed to 8%. Only 0.8% prescriptions were illegible. Medical Assistants (MA) and Assistant Medical Officer (Al\•’[AMO) contributed 44.4% and 41.6% respectively. to the prescription with errors. Results from the MUCHS,. Dar-Es -——salaam City and Harvard project For the ARVs prescriptions showed that 62.5% had errors of omission related to weight of` patients. This study shows a low compliance o t` requirements in prescriptions writing. Hence there is a great need of the prescribers to understand the importance of clear and complete prescription writing in order to improve compliance and reduce prescribing errors