Evaluation of Outpatient Prescription Compliance in A Bukittinggi Hospital

Abstract

Prescriptions are written requests from doctors or dentists to pharmacists, whether in paper or electronic form to provide and deliver medicines to patients in accordance with applicable regulations. Pharmacists play an important role in preventing medication error by performing prescription screening to reduce the risks of harm on patients. The objective of the study was to evaluate the compliance of outpatient prescriptions in Bukittinggi Hospital. This research was performed using descriptive observational with a cross-sectional design. An amount of 119 prescriptions from July to September 2017 were collected. All prescriptions were screened for their compliance to Pharmaceutical Care Standard in Indonesian Hospitals, which consists of three criteria: 1) administrative requirements, 2) pharmaceutical compatibilities and 3) clinical considerations, and derived into 21 sub-criteria. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. After screened thoroughly, there were no prescriptions which totally comply with the standard. There were only 10 of 21 sub-criteria which were fulfilled by the prescriptions, which were registration number, R/ mark, patient`s name, dosage form, frequency, duration of therapy, drug name, strength, drug interaction, and drug duplication. It can be concluded that the prescriptions have not fulfilled the pharmaceutical care standard. Thus, hospital pharmacists need to improve pharmaceutical services.