Assessment of Out-Door Patients Prescriptions According to FDA Prescribing Pattern in Northern Region of Saudi Arabia

Objective The present study was undertaken to emphasize on medication errors occurs due to prescription errors. Methodology In this study we evaluated prescription pattern for completeness in 300 prescriptions of the outpatient department in primary care hospitals situated in the Northern region of Saudi Arabia and analyzed for completeness with respective to (a) Prescriber information (b) Patient information (c) Details of each medication prescribed d) Subjective assessment of legibility of handwriting in Grades (I, II and III) for all prescriptions e) Drug interactions for all readable prescriptions. Symbol Rx and patients name was written in all prescriptions while patient weight was not mentioned in any prescription. Results Hospital name was mentioned in only 2 prescriptions. Medication prescribed like the strength of medication and frequency of administration was included in 73 % and 97.33 % prescriptions respectively. Route of administration mentioned in 18.33 % prescriptions while instruction for use not mentioned in any of the prescriptions. Illegibility of handwriting was found Grade-I in 47, Grade-II in 154, Grade-III in 99 i. e. moderately legible, barely legible, not readable respectively. Drug interaction found in 12 (Minor 08, Major 04) prescriptions. Result reflect that prescription errors occurred frequently by physicians. Conclusion It is essential to address this issue and certain steps are to be taken to strictly follow FDA guidelines for writing a prescription.