Optimizing Prescription Practices: A Cross-Sectional Insight into Drug Utilisation Pattern at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Southern Odisha

Background & Aim : Irrational prescription, a global problem, leads to ineffective and unsafe treatment, which causes exacerbation or prolongation of illness as well as distress and harm to the patient. The incidence of irrational prescribing practices cannot be reduced without critical intervention, which involves assessing their causes, and for this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a set of core prescribing indicators. This study aimed to assess drug use patterns using the WHO core prescribing indicators in the outpatient department of the District Headquarters Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha. Methods :A Retrospective, hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted over a three-month period. Six hundred outpatient department (OPD)-based prescriptions were analyzed using the WHO core prescribing indicators. The study outcomes were expressed as numbers and percentages using descriptive statistics. Results : A total of 1638 no. of drugs were prescribed for 600 prescriptions, and the average number of prescribed drugs was 2.73. Similarly, 373 (62.16%) prescriptions contained antibiotics, and 161 (26.83%) prescriptions involved injections. The Percentage of drugs prescribed as generic and the percentage of drugs prescribed from the National List of Essential Medicines were 100% each. Conclusion : There was moderate compliance with the WHO prescribing indicators in our study. Although the percentage of drugs prescribed as generic and the percentage of drugs prescribed from the NLEM were as per the WHO-recommended values, the average number of drugs per prescription was higher than the WHO-recommended values. The study also revealed the over-prescribing of both antibiotics and injections.