Publication:

Prescribing pattern of ophthalmological medication in geriatric inpatients of a tertiary care hospital

Background Older people are potentially at greater risk of medication error. Gaining insight into the prescribing pattern especially in eye diseases as they are a common problem in elderly, in order to identify prescribing related problems is the fundamental step in improving the quality of prescription and patient care.

Methods Prescriptions fulfilling inclusion criteria were collected from hospital Medical record department (MRD) and analyzed using the World Health Organization (WHO) core prescribing indicators for rationality of prescriptions.

Results Among 811 prescriptions analysed, 52.7% (428) were of male patients, those aged 60-70 years were 77.2% (626) and patients with only cataract constituted 77% (625). Prescriptions with oral antibiotics were 57.1% (334); topical antibiotics were 35.8% (429) and topical analgesics 46.2% (553). Out of 1182 FDCs noted, 59% (479) were found to be rational and 34.6% (281) were from Essential Medicines List 2014. Only 2% (61) drugs were prescribed using generic name while 64.06% (1606) of drugs were from the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (April 2015). Average number of drugs per encounter was 3.7. Percentage of encounters with antibiotics was found to be 43.8% and no prescriptions with injections were noted.

Conclusions Although usage of antibiotics and topical drugs was conforming to WHO recommended standards, there is a need to improve prescription pattern by using generic names and drugs from Essential Drug List.