European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

SURVEY ON LEGIBILITY OF PRESCRIPTIONS IN PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT CLINICAL SETUPS IN AND AROUND BAGEPALLI TOWN

Dr. Zothanmawia C., Dr. Nagaraju B.*, Dr. Ravindran M., Dr. Ali Bolouri, Padmavathi G.V., Patan Fayaz, Dr. Marzieh Mahmoodi

ABSTRACT

Prescription is a written instruction by a medical practitioner that authorizes a patient to be issued with a medicine or treatment. It is a written direction from prescriber to pharmacist which is considered to be a medico legal document that should be written legibly, accurately and completely in capital letters. The present study was carried out over one month period in different private and Government clinical setups. Patient and drug data was recorded. It should contain patient particulars, diagnosis, investigations, drug details and information from the prescriber regarding the indication of prescribing agents, duration of therapy. But survey showed most of the prescriptions contains patient particulars and medications only in which 92% of prescriptions are unclear; unreadable; illegible which is a serious problem that may lead to dispensing errors and treatment complications.

Keywords: Prescription, medical practitioner, legible, dispensing errors, complications.