Analysis of medical prescriptions dispensed at health centers in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

A b s t r a c t This article focuses on medical pre s c r i p t i o n s dispensed at health centers under the Mu n i c ipal Health De p a rtment in Belo Ho r i zo n t e , Minas Ge rais St a t e , Bra z i l . The study analyze d 4,607 prescriptions from Ma rch to April 1999, g rouped according to origin (internal or ex t e rn a l ) . The analysis focused on information written on medical pre s c r i p t i o n s . The main findings were : (a) an ave rage of 2.4 drugs per prescription in both gro u p s ; (b) prescriptions filled out with 4 or more drugs accounted for 18.0% of internal and 17.6% of external pre s c r i p t i o n s ; (c) 84.3% of internal and 85.5% of external prescriptions provided no instructions for use of m e d i c a t i o n ; (d) information

Prescribing patterns of a garment medical centre in Bangladesh

“…Use of generic names in prescription eliminate the chance of duplication of drug products and also reduce the cost of the patient. 10 The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name was 0% in the study which is very much less than that reported in studies conducted in Cambodia (99.8%), 11 India (73.4%) 12 and Nepal (21.3%). 13 The most common reasons for not prescribing generic name in Bangladesh may be tradition, low production of generic drugs in Bangladesh and currently, most of the pharmaceutical companies divertive drug promotion technique.…”

Assessment of Drug Use Pattern by Using WHO Core Drug Use Indicators at Public Hospitals in Ethiopia

“…According to WHO a label to be adequate it should contain at least patient name, drug name, strength, dosage (dose and frequency) and duration/quantity of the drug. However findings from similar studies showed that practice of adequate labelling was 67% [26][27][28]. It could be explained by high patient flow and inadequacy of knowledge and skill in labelling of prescribed drugs could be the major factor for these low results.…”

“…It could be directly related to inadequate availability of essential drugs. Studies showed that good drug and medical supply management insures continuous supply of drugs and prevents frequent stock outs and wastages [11,[26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

Avaliação da qualidade das prescrições de antimicrobianos dispensadas em unidades públicas de saúde de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil, 2002

“…Este percentual é alto e representa um consumo de recursos consideráveis para o município, fato que já havia sido apontado anteriormente por Acúr-cio et al 8 para medicamentos de outras classes farmacológicas. Os planos de saúde e consultó-rios particulares foram a segunda origem mais freqüente de prescrições externas, o que suscita discussões sobre o papel das seguradoras na cobertura dos tratamentos médicos.…”

“…Em estudo da prescrição de alguns medicamentos traçadores pela Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Belo Horizonte (SMSA/BH), Minas Gerais, Brasil, Acúrcio et al 8 observaram ausência de informações essenciais para dispensação e uso adequado do medicamento, indicando problemas com a prescrição que podem levar à má utilização do medicamento e a custos adicionais de tratamento.…”