Analysis of Prescription Pattern Among Private Practitioners of Rajshahi Metropolitan City

Abstract

Background: Now a days our country has improved remarkably in all sectors of health care facilities. But still patients compliance is poor. Though the private practitioners claim higher fees, their practice in writing prescription is controversial. Therefore the present study was designed to evaluate the traditional prescriptions done by registered medical practitioners with that of standard prescription models.

Methodology: A cross sectional type of descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the prescribing pattern of the different category of private practitioners practicing within Rajshahi Metropolitan area from 1st November, 2014 to 1st April, 2015. The study was conducted by focusing on the practitioners' prescription layout or mechanics of prescription order writing and the prescribing indicator part of the WHO core drug use indicators. After completion of collection, all the data were coded as well as analyzed by SPSS version 17.

Results: Data were collected from 300 patients, 3 patients from each practitioner. Within the superscription part, gender and weight of patients were mentioned only in 1% and 12% of the prescriptions, subscription or direction to the pharmacists was not present even in a single prescription. Follow up advices were found only in 30% of prescriptions and registration numbers of the physicians were mentioned only in 15% of the prescriptions. According to the prescribing indicator, the average number of drugs per encounter was 4.38 and 0% drugs were prescribed by generic name. 13.3% of encounters were with an injection prescribed, only 29.05% drugs were prescribed from EDL (Essential Drug List) of Bangladesh.

Conclusion: Standard prescription prescribed by the practitioners was not satisfactory. So the private practitioners should be more aware about the writing of prescriptions in a proper way.

KYAMC Journal Vol. 7, No.-1, Jul 2016, Page 691-696