Compliance with prescription writing at an outpatient department in Pakistan

Background: Although patient safety is among the foremost duties of healthcare professionals, errors in prescription can have adverse effects. Objective: To assess prescriptions from outpatient department for compliance while prescribing according to WHO standards Material Methods: This study included 900 prescriptions from outpatient department of a teaching hospital which were analyzed according to WHO standards for name, age, medical record number and diagnosis of the patient, along with date on the prescription, the name, strength, dose, route of the drug and the prescriber’s name and signature. Data was descriptively analyzed using SPSS version 22. Results: 20.3% were without the patient’s name. 47% had age of the patient missing. More than half of the prescriptions were without the patient’s medical record number. The prescriber’s name was not present in 44.3% prescriptions. 6.7% did not have the dose mentioned. 3% of the prescriptions used generic names of the drugs. 80.3% had the prescriber’s signature on them whereas 58.3% had a missing diagnosis. Conclusion: This study highlighted major deficiencies in prescription writing by medical personnel. Emphasis on compliance with WHO standards is strongly recommended, both at academic and professional levels in order to avoid adverse outcomes which affect patient’s well-being as a whole.