Analysis of Medical Prescription:Prescriber’s Adherence to the Basic Principles of Prescription order writing

Medical prescription is a medico-legal document. All prescription order should be legible, unambiguous, dated and signed clearly for optimal communication between prescriber and dispenser.The information written on the 324 prescription encounters were collected on the basis of presence or absence of basic contents of prescriptions, under five broad sections- 1. About doctor (prescriber’s identity), 2. About patient (patient’s identity), 3.About disease, 4.About treatment, 5. About validity of prescriptionand analysedto assess prescriber’s adherence to the basic principles of prescription order writing and to increase awareness among prescribers in this regard. Analysis
revealed, 64.81% prescriptions had legible handwriting, date of issue of prescription was present in 94.44% of prescriptions, doctor’s medical council registration number was not present in 85.19% prescriptions, patient’s address were missing in 82.72% prescriptions, 46.91% prescription did not have any information regarding patient’s complaints or disease, average drugs per prescription was 3.33, directions to dispenser were present in 55.56% prescriptions, directions to patient were present in 88.88% prescriptions and signature of doctor was present in 67.28% prescription. It necessitates that sensitization programmes should be initiated and training should be provided to improve prescriber’s adherence to basic principles of prescription writing.