International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Research

Authors
Sanjay Kumar, Divya Agrawal, Trupti Rekha Swain, Prakash Kumar Sahu

Abstract
Introduction: Appropriate use of drugs is an essential element in achieving quality of health and medical care for patients and the community as a whole. The irrational use of medicines is a serious problem worldwide. WHO and the International Network of Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) have developed a set of drug prescribing indicators to be used as measures of prescribing performance in primary care. Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty prescriptions from a tertiary care teaching hospital were collected randomly and were analyzed and the parameters included the INRUD indicators and rationality of prescriptions. Vital, essential and non- essential (VEN) method was also applied to ascertain the quality of drug procurement. The information was compiled, scored and analyzed using WHO guidelines. Results and discussion: Antibiotics were very commonly prescribed in post-operative patients. Sometimes there was no viable justification of prescribing the antibiotics. Average number of drugs prescribed per prescription was 4.8±1.5. The antibiotics per prescription were 2.6±0.7 and injections per prescription were 2.4±1.9. Conclusion: The essential list of drugs was not followed by doctors while prescribing these drugs. Usually costly drugs were prescribed, and rationality was not maintained. The surgeons need to be educated regarding this and WHO guidelines should be followed.