ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT PRESCRIBING PRACTICES USING WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION PRESCRIBING INDICATORS AT A PRIVATE GENERAL HOSPITAL IN WESTERN INDIA– A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Purpose: Drug use studies are essential in health, as the research provides insight into drug use in communities. The current study aimed to evaluate the prescription pattern of drugs prescribed in a private general hospital’s out-patient department (OPD),using prescribing indicators developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Methods: The study was a prospective, observational, cross-sectional study performed at an OPD of a private general hospital located in the Western region of India from October 2020 to March 2021 for 6 months using WHO prescribing indicators. Microsoft Excel and SPSS Version 26.0 were used to capture and analyze the data of the study. Results: A total of 619 prescriptions were captured and evaluated in this study, and the total number of drugs prescribed was 2023 drugs. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 3.3 (SD = 1.1). The percentage of drugs prescribed by using generic name of the drug was 2.8% and the percentage of encounters with an antibiotic and an injection prescribed was 42.3% and 5.3%, respectively. The percentage of drugs prescribed from the National Essential List of Medicine (NELM) was 37.9%. Conclusion: The study’s findings show that, except for the percentage of injections prescribed per encounter, other drug use pattern indicators deviated from the WHO recommended values. Hence, effective interventions like awareness programs on rational prescribing of drugs are suggested to be undertaken at private hospitals.