Impacts of the essential medicine system on rational drug use in community health service centers

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the impacts of the essential medicine system in Jiangsu Province on rational drug use in community health service centers.Methods 7667 outpatient prescriptions from 6 community health service centers in Nantong were selected by cluster sampling from January 2009 to December 2011,the part of SDUIs(Selected Drug Use Indicators)developed by WHO and the self-design indicators were employed to analyze rational use of drugs.Results After implementation of the essential medicine system,the average types of drugs per prescription decreased from 3.02 to 2.74,the rate of antibiotic drugs usage dropped from 61.43％ to 51.2％,the rate of one antibiotic usage reduced from 33.94％to 28.58％,and two types from 20.43％to 15.8％,all with significant differences(P＜0.001).The average expenses in single prescription arose from RMB 69.70 to 87.28,the rate of essential medicine usage increased from 81.22％to 85.60％,the injection utilization decreased from 31.14％ to 14.13％,while TCM utilization ascended from 16.17％to 21.8％,all with significant differences(P＜0.001).Condusion The essential medicine systems has positive impacts on rational drug use,but the expenses of per prescription are higher,and irrational antibiotic drugs are still a serious problem. Key words: Essential medicine system; Community health service center; Rational drug use; Evaluation