Drug Prescription Pattern of Inpatients in a Tertiary Care Hospital - A Prospective Observational Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Pharmacology, Government Medical College, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India

2 Department of Pharmacology, Sri Venkateswaraa Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Puducherry, India

Abstract

Background and Objective: The World Health Organization [WHO] supports the use of drug use prescribing indicators as important tools for evaluating the level of polypharmacy, the use of generic medications, and the appropriateness of the use of antibiotics or parenteral medications in addition to gauging adherence to the list of essential drugs.
Patients and Methods: Our study was done prospectively from inpatients admitted in our tertiary care hospital. Prescriptions were randomly chosen to be analysed for the WHO prescribing indicators for a period of 6 months from April 2023 to September 2023.
Results: A total of 600 prescriptions were analysed and the average number of drugs per prescription was 3.28. The demographic distribution of patients mirrored a rising trend with increasing age as a higher proportion of patients [345] were 60 years and above [57.5%]. Among the rest, those aged 40 years and above were 29.3% [176] and 13.2% [79] were <40 years. 558 [93%] prescriptions did not have any generic names, 81.40% prescriptions did not have any antibiotics and likewise 92.50% did not have any injections prescribed. 1968 drug products prescribed, the highest percentage [12%] of prescribed drugs were antidiabetic, anti‑hypertensives, antiplatelets and hypolipidemics.
Conclusion: Hence our study has identified the need for necessary adjustments to the prevalent prescribing patterns in tertiary care hospitals.

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