Abstract

EVALUATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH GOOD PRESCRIPTION PRACTICES IN THE CHILDREN'S MATERNAL HOSPITAL IN CAPIATÁ, PARAGUAY

Liz Paola Flecha Galeano, Zully Vera, Gustavo H. Marin*, Gladys Beatriz Lugo, Lourdes Samaniego and Gladys Mabel Maidana*

Abstract

The evaluation of “Good Prescription Practices” is essential to know what are the most frequent mistakes that health’s professionals develop at prescribing a drug to their patients and quantify it these errors are associated to serious adverse reactions. Errors in medical prescriptions are a health problem that can result in patient's health damage. Each Health institution must know these errors in order to perform actions to minimize them. The objective of this work is to quantify prescription errors in the Maternal-Children hospital in Capiatá, Paraguay in order to detect the points that require improvements. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study that analyse pharmacological prescriptions, and type and quantity of medical errors. Variables studied were calligraphy, legible or illegible of letter; presence or lack of signature & stamp of the doctor; presence or lack of date; paper prescription with/without letterhead or institution stamp; concentration of the pharmaceutical form; omission of the pharmaceutical form; prescription by trade name; amendments in recipes. Results: 7836 prescriptions were analysed with a total of 15429 prescribed medications. It was detected 18.25% of an illegible prescription; 0.06% lack of doctor's signature or stamp; 12% omit the date; 1% were recipes without letterhead or seal of the institution; 18.4% drug concentration not registered; 14.5% do not clarify the pharmaceutical form or quantity to be dispensed; 34.6% had error or omission in the unit of measure; 0.9% carry out the prescription with a trade name and 0.16% submit an amendment to the recipe. Conclusion: the present study reveals that Good Prescriptions Practices are poorly performed in Paraguay’s Maternal & Children Hospital. As consequence, prescription errors are frequent, mostly of them severe; and potentially patient’s health is in risk. From this knowledge, the errors are now detected and can be corrected.

Keywords: Prescription errors, drugs, practices.