Handwritten prescription practices in a public hospital in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya: a best practice implementation project

Abstract

Background: Prescription writing error is a common phenomenon in the health sector. Appropriate handwritten prescription practices minimize medical errors during medical drug dispensing. Objectives: This project aimed to identify the extent to which clinicians adhere to handwritten drug prescription best practices and implement evidence-based strategies to improve compliance with handwritten prescription best practices in an outpatient department. Methods: The project was conceptually informed by the JBI Model of Evidence-Based Healthcare and the JBI Evidence Implementation Framework. Baseline and follow-up audit data were collected and analyzed using JBI's Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System (PACES) software. The JBI Getting Research into Practice (GRiP) program was used to identify potential barriers and design intervention strategies. The project was conducted in a public hospital outpatient department in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Results: There was a 100% improvement in compliance with the number of prescribers who had received education on essential features of a handwritten drug prescription. High compliance was observed in prescriptions that indicated the patient name (99%) and date of prescription (98%) in the follow-up audit. Approximately half of the prescriptions included a diagnosis of the disease in both the baseline and the follow-up audit. However, in the follow-up audit, only 21% of the prescriptions had legible handwriting and 27% prescribed drugs using the generic drug name. Conclusion: Regular audits and dissemination of audit findings through continuous medical education, hospital communication forums, and notices improved compliance with the number of prescriptions that contained the patient identifier and the date of prescription.