Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Adherence to Prescribing Indicators at a District Hospital in Ghana: Do We Match WHO Standards?

Obed Kwabena Offe Amponsah
* ORCID logo ,
Nana Kwame Ayisi-Boateng
ORCID logo ,
Sharath Burugina Nagaraja
ORCID logo ,
Divya Nair
,
Karlos Muradyan
ORCID logo ,
George Kwesi Hedidor
,
Appiah-Korang Labi
,
Mercy Naa Aduele Opare-Addo
,
Emmanuel Sarkodie
,
Kwame Ohene Buabeng
Version 1 : Received: 1 September 2022 / Approved: 15 September 2022 / Online: 15 September 2022 (13:39:06 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Amponsah, O.K.O.; Ayisi-Boateng, N.K.; Nagaraja, S.B.; Nair, D.; Muradyan, K.; Hedidor, G.K.; Labi, A.-K.; Opare-Addo, M.N.A.; Sarkodie, E.; Buabeng, K.O. Adherence to Prescribing Indicators at a District Hospital in Ghana: Do We Match WHO Standards? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12260. Amponsah, O.K.O.; Ayisi-Boateng, N.K.; Nagaraja, S.B.; Nair, D.; Muradyan, K.; Hedidor, G.K.; Labi, A.-K.; Opare-Addo, M.N.A.; Sarkodie, E.; Buabeng, K.O. Adherence to Prescribing Indicators at a District Hospital in Ghana: Do We Match WHO Standards? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12260.

Abstract

(1) Background: Rational use of medicines (RUM) and their assessment is important to ensure optimal use of resources and patient care in hospitals. These assessments are essential to identifying practice gaps for quality improvement. (2) Methods: Assessment of adherence to WHO/ International Network for Rational Use of Drugs core prescribing indicators among out-patients in 2021 was conducted at the University Hospital of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Ashanti region of Ghana. We reviewed electronic medical records (EMR) of 110,280 patient encounters in the year which resulted in 336,087 medicines prescribed. (3) Results: The average number of medicines prescribed per encounter was 3 with generics being prescribed in 76% of prescriptions. Injections were prescribed in 7% of encounters while 90% of medicines were from Ghana’s Essential Medicines List 2017. (4) Conclusions: With the exception of patient encounters with injections, all prescribing indicators assessed in this study did not meet WHO optimum levels providing targets for quality improvement in RUM. Implementing prescribing guides and policies, regular audits and feedback as well as continuous professional development training may help to improve prescribing practices in the hospital.

Keywords

Drug use review; Outpatients; Ghana; SORT IT; Quality indicators; Electronic Medical Records; Operational research; Rational use of medicines

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Pharmacy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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