Abstract

Background: Drugs are important component of health care and play a critical role in saving life. Drug use in health facility is a complex subject involving physician, patient and dispenser and hence is directly affected by prescribing, dispensing and patient use of drugs.  The study is, therefore, aimed to evaluate drug prescribing practice using WHO prescribing indicators in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital (HFSUH), Harar, Ethiopia. Method: A retrospective cross sectional study was carried out to determine current prescribing practice in HFSUH outpatient pharmacy department, Harar, from January 20-February 20, 2016. As per the WHO guidelines, 600 prescription papers were selected using systematic random sampling and reviewed with the help of observational checklist. The data were entered and processed with SPSS version 16. Finally, the data were evaluated using WHO criteria. Result: The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 1.7. The percentage of encounters in which an antibiotic or injection was prescribed was 343 (57.2%) and 354 (59%), respectively. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and from an essential drug list (EDL) was found to be 954 (92.1%) and 708 (68.94%), respectively. Conclusion: On the basis of the findings, the prescribing practices for antibiotic use; injection use; and prescribing from EDL showed a great deviation from the standards recommended by WHO. These two commonly overused and costly forms of drug therapy need to be regulated closely. In addition, prescribing practice should be limited to EDL of the country. Key words: WHO, core prescribing indicators, prescribing practice, HFSUH

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