Utilization Pattern of Antibiotics and Patient Care Indicators in the Teaching Hospitals, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the antibiotic utilization pattern and patient care indicators according to the World Health Organization (WHO) methodology. An observational prospective and prescription-based study was conducted in the surgical outpatient department (SOD) and emergency department (ED) in two teaching hospitals during 3 months. Prescription of patients was investigated through random systematic sampling technique and desired information was collected through pre-design pro forma. Observed practices were evaluated according to WHO criteria. The categorical data were presented as percentages and the chi-squared test was used to make comparisons through SPSS V-22.0. A total of 586 prescriptions (hospital-A = 279; hospital-B = 307) were collected from the SOD and ED over the study period. There were more male patients (398; 67.9%) compared with female with an average age of 43.5 years (ranged 16–95). All the prescriptions contained antibiotics (100%) and the prescription having at least one injectable antibiotic were 300 (51.4%). Generic prescribing was observed in 13.5% of prescriptions and 96% of antibiotics were prescribed from the National Essential Medicine List/formulary. The mean time consumed and noted during a consultation and dispensing was found to be 8 min and 157.8 s, respectively. Furthermore, only 48% of the patients knew about the correct dosage schedule of the antibiotic prescription. Cephalosporins (mostly ceftriaxone and cefuroxime) were the most frequently prescribed class of antibiotics. The over-prescribing of antibiotics, low generic prescribing, lack of patients’ knowledge, a short consultation, and dispensing times were the major identified problems.