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

• DOI: 10.1007/s42399-019-00131-z
• Publication Date: 2019-08-19T15:02:31Z
• Authors: Zakir Khan; Naveed Ahmed; Asim. ur. Rehman; Faiz Ullah Khan; Yusuf Karataş
• Keywords: Formulary; Cefuroxime

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.