Abstract            Volume:7  Issue-8  Year-2019         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

In the dispensing process, the quality of handwritten prescriptions plays a crucial role to prevent medication errors. Good quality prescriptions are necessary for minimizing errors in the dispensing of medications. The study aimed to assess the legibility and completeness of prescription papers dispensed at an Ethiopian General Hospital outpatient department in Batu, East Shewa. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2018 on handwritten prescription papers prescribed from September 2017 to September 2018 at an outpatient pharmacy of Batu General Hospital, Ethiopia. Majority of the prescriptions had incorporated name of the hospital, 539 (96.6%), name of the prescriber, 352 (63.1%) and signature of the prescriber, 502 (90%). About 56 (10%) of the prescriptions were missing “strength of the drug” information while 102 (18.3%) of prescriptions were without “frequency of administration” information. From the total prescriptions collected, 126 (22.6%) and 337 (60.4%) of the prescriptions were within Grade D and C respectively. The study revealed that prescription errors are frequent and need to be taken care of. The overall completeness was 56.7%, which is low. Important details that are required for the identification of patients, as well as prescribers, were absent, and the majority of prescriptions were not clearly legible.

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