A Study of Prescription Audit in Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in India: An Observational Study

Background: The quality of life can be improved by enhancing the standards of the medical treatment at all levels of the healthcare delivery system. A medical audit oversees the observance of these standards. Prescription Audit offers the most comprehensive overview of performance, detailing parameter as per the check list of prescription audit. Aim: To monitor, evaluate and suggest modifications (if necessary) in the prescribing practices of medical practitioners. Methods: The observational study was conducted over a period of 6 months and data were collected from 1093 prescriptions collected from outpatient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in India. Results: Total 1093 prescriptions were evaluated for the Audit, out of which 56.4% were Male & 43.6% were Female cases. Majority of the study subjects belonged to the age group of 40-59 years (32.4%). During the study mainly twelve parameter were assessed according to the checklist provided by the Hospital with total 1093 samples of prescription audit, only 2.2 % (280) cases had the non –compliance, 64.5% (8464) cases had compliance and 33.3% (4372) not applicable to this parameters. Conclusion: The results obtained from the study shows the prevailing prescribing habits at our institution. Many of the prescribing trends from this study are a cause of concern and need attention. This study reveals that the auditing of prescription in terms of rationality, it remains poor. The value of such audits in generating and testing hypotheses on inappropriate prescribing will definitely create an intervention to improve prescribing habits and ultimately patient care will be improved. Keywords: Prescription Auditing, Outpatient department, Tertiary care teaching hospital, Compliance & non-compliance. Â