Publication: A study on rational drug prescribing and dispensing in outpatients in a tertiary care teaching hospital of Western Nepal
Date
2006
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
kathmandu University
Abstract
Objectives: To analyze the prescriptions of out-patients for rational prescribing and dispensing and to evaluate the
patient’s knowledge regarding use of drugs, using INRUD indicators.
Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted at the Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal
during the time period from June 10 th to August 19 th 2004.
Results: Totally 247 prescriptions were randomly selected for analysis, wherein 720 drugs were prescribed. Only
15% of drugs were prescribed by generic name, 21.67% of the total drugs consisted of fixed-dose combinations,
only 40% of drugs were from the Essential drug list of Nepal and 29.44% (n=212) were from the WHO Essential
drug list. It was found that more than half (54.17 %) of the drugs were from Nepalese National Formulary and
35.69% were from WHO model formulary. Dermatological products were most commonly prescribed followed by
drugs acting on central nervous system, antimicrobials and drugs acting on cardiovascular system. Among the drugs
dispensed, 79.16% were oral followed by topical (18.19%) and parenteral forms (2.98%). Diagnosis was mentioned
only in 3.23% (n=8) of the prescriptions and the average cost per prescription was found to be 241.11 Nepalese
rupees (US$ 3.26). It was found out that pharmacist labelled only 0.4% of the medication envelopes with the name
of the patient. However, 82.6% of the medication envelopes were labelled with name of the drug and 87.0 % with
drug strength. Only 53.8% (n=133) of the patient knew both the duration of the therapy and administration time of
drugs.
Conclusion: There is a need for educational intervention for prescribers and both managerial and educational
intervention for the hospital pharmacists to improve prescribing and dispensing.
Key words: Rational use of drugs, Dispensing, Pharmacist, Prescribing
Description
Alam K1 , Mishra P2, Prabhu M 3
, Shankar PR 4, Palaian S 5, Bhandari RB6, Bista D7
1,6,7 Hospital Pharmacist, 2,4
Assistant Professor, 3
Associate Professor, 5Lecturer, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Manipal
College of Medical Sciences Pokhara, Nepal