Publication:

Study of drug prescriptions in medical in-patients in a teaching hospital

Background Study of prescriptions reveals the drug utilization pattern in a given hospital at a given time. This study was conducted to observe and analyse the prescribing pattern of drugs for the in-patients in the general medicine department of a teaching hospital.

Methods In a prospective observational study, a total of 234 prescriptions of in-patients of general medicine department of a teaching hospital were analysed. The drugs prescribed their route of administration, diagnosis and demographic data were recorded.

Results Pantoprazole and ondansetron were found in most of the prescriptions. Antimicrobials were the commonest class of drugs prescribed. Cephalosporins, metronidazole, doxycycline, ofloxacin and amoxicillin+clavulanate accounted for most of the antimicrobials. A drug prescribed from the national list of essential medicines (NLEM) was 75.97%. Only 3% of the drugs were prescribed by generic names.

Conclusions Prescription of pantoprazole and ondansetron was very frequent in this study. Antimicrobials were found in most of the prescriptions. All the prescriptions in this study had injectable drugs. Three-fourths of the drugs were from the national list of essential medicines (NLEM). Generic drugs need to be prescribed more.