Hyderabad: A concerning tendency has been identified by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) over half of doctors in government tertiary institutions give patients an incomplete prescription, which poses a serious danger to patient safety. The survey was conducted nationwide.
In February 2024, the Indian Journal of Medical Research published a study by the ICMR titled “Evaluation of prescription of tertiary care hospitals across India for deviations from treatment guidelines and their potential guidelines.” The study found that 45 percent of doctors in these healthcare facilities, both government and private, write incomplete prescriptions, with 10 percent of those prescriptions containing completely unacceptable deviations.
“Overall, 45 percent of variations were detected; of them, 9.8 percent were assessed to be unsatisfactory. Clinicians suggested online courses on rational prescribing and administrative instructions as possible interventions to reduce the deviations, according to the ICMR research, which looked at 4,838 prescriptions, of which 2,171 had faults.
According to the study, out of the 4,838 prescriptions gathered, 475 (or 9.81%) exhibited unacceptable deviations. These prescriptions contained 1,696 total prescription medicines, or 3.5 pharmaceuticals per prescription.
The study highlighted the potential risks and costs for patients resulting from incomplete prescriptions. These risks could include elevated costs for patients, a higher likelihood of drug interactions and adverse drug reactions, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a result of drug abuse, and the potential for treatment failure.
The study examined the outpatient prescriptions written by doctors in different specializations in tertiary care teaching government and private hospitals throughout India. The appropriateness of the prescriptions written by qualified patients who were leaving the hospital pharmacy or the outpatient department was assessed.
Pantoprazole was the most often prescribed medication that was incorrectly written in prescriptions with unacceptable variations.
Treatment costs might go up as a result of the clinician’s reporting of unacceptable deviations. According to the ICMR study, doctors advise prompt prescription assessment and ongoing training activities on rational prescribing to reduce deviations.
-Raja Aditya
