A prescription error is a failure in the prescription writing process
which results in a wrong instruction about one or more of the normal features
of a prescription. The objective of this study was to identify the extent of
prescribing errors in prescriptions containing Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs) and to find appropriate solutions for reducing these errors
because NSAIDs are one of the widely misused drugs. A total of 479
prescriptions containing NSAIDs were collected from various out-patient
clinical settings of district Khairpur Pakistan and analyzed retrospectively to
identify the common prescribing errors, i.e. omission errors and commission
errors as per prescription writing guidelines/parameters established by the
World Health Organization and authenticated drug references, such as, The Drug
information book and the British National Formulary (BNF). Only 21 (4.4%)
prescriptions were found error free and the remaining 458 (95.6%) prescriptions
contained different types of errors. Errors were divided into omission and
commission errors. Among omission errors, most of the prescriptions were
missing key information related to the patient, such as patient diagnosis,
which was not written in 84% of prescriptions. Among information pertaining to
the prescriber, the registration number was missing in 88.9% of prescriptions.
Among drug related information, duration of therapy was not written in 82.8% of
prescriptions. Among commission errors, 85.2% of prescriptions were ambiguously
written. A significant percentage of omission and commission were found in
routine practice. It is strongly recommended that computerized physician order
entry (CPOE) and continuous educational training programs for prescribers to be
implemented in order to reduce vital prescribing errors and prescriptions
should be reviewed by pharmacists in order to reduce the extent of these
serious and fatal errors. - See more at:
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