Analysis of completeness and legibility of prescription orders at a tertiary care hospital

Introduction: Medication errors are currently a worldwide public health issue. Since errors of prescribing are the commonest form of avoidable medication errors, it is the most important target for improvement. The purpose of study was to screen drug prescriptions dispensed in a tertiary care hospital for completeness of information. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted including 400 prescriptions. All prescriptions were evaluated for presence of (a) Prescriber information (hospital details, department, name, designation and signature of physician) (b) Patient information: Name, age, sex, weight, address, and date of issue (c) Details of each medication prescribed: Strength, frequency, route, dosage form, quantity to be dispensed, and instructions for use. Subjective assessment of legibility of handwriting was done. Results: Hospital identification details were present on all prescriptions. Prescriber details like name, designation, and signature were present in 46.25%, 21.75%, and 73.25%, respectively. The patient’s name, age, and gender were on 94.75%, 77.25% and 69.50%, respectively. Weight was mentioned on 10% and address on none. Details of medication like strength of medication and the frequency of administration were included in 70.33% and 93.77%, respectively. Route and dosage form were on 26.92 and 77.93%, respectively. 88.09% had quantity to be dispensed and 17.76% had instructions for use mentioned. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that prescription error frequently occur and may contribute to medical error. There is a need to critically address the legibility of prescription, correct spelling with the correct strength and frequency and all other information on a prescription concerned with patient, prescriber and drugs to minimize the occurrence of medication errors.