Abstract

Background: Though there is no global standard for prescription writing, all prescriptions are fundamentally required to contain some basic elements and failure to include these can cause medication errors and poor treatment outcomes that can lead to economic crisis and death of patients. Objective: To evaluate adherence of prescribers towards standard prescription writing in Ayder Referral Hospital, Northern Ethiopia. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted retrospectively by reviewing sampled prescriptions written from Juanary1 to May 30, 2014 using checklist. Systematic random sampling was used to select 384 prescriptions. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 384 prescriptions were evaluated for adherence of prescribers to basic elements of prescription writing. Among analyzed prescriptions, 367(95.6%), 368(95.8%) and 363(94.5%) of them recorded sex, age and card number of the patients retrospectively. Weight and address of patients were indicated in none of prescriptions. Prescribers` names, qualifications and signatures were written on 291(75.8%), 131(34.1%), 370(96.4%) of the prescription orders, respectively. Dose, frequency of administration and quantity of drugs for treatments were omitted in 1(0.3%), 3(0.8%) and 12(3.1%) of the prescriptions respectively. Of 1003 drugs, 430(83%) were prescribed in their generic names. The prescriber’s handwriting was illegible in 69(18%) of prescriptions. Only, 10(2.6%) of the prescriptions contained diagnosis and 369(96%) of the prescriptions were dated. Conclusion: The proportion of prescribers adhering towards completing components of prescriptions ranged from 0% for weight to 100% for names of patients.

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