Antibiotic-prescribing pattern in the outpatient departments using the WHO prescribing indicators and AWaRe assessment tool in a tertiary-care hospital in South India

CONTEXT: Rational drug use has a great role of influence in health care. The fact sheet given by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that around 50% of the drugs are prescribed, dispensed, and sold inappropriately. One of the major consequences of irrational drug use in infections is antibiotic resistance. AIM: The present study aims to assess the antibiotic-prescribing pattern by auditing the prescriptions in a teaching hospital. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the pharmacy of a teaching hospital to evaluate the prescriptions of the outpatient department. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The prescriptions used to treat symptoms suggestive of infections were taken into consideration. A total of 1,000 prescriptions were analyzed. DATA ANALYSIS: The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: A total of 2,536 drugs were prescribed. The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.5. The percentage of encounters with antibiotics prescribed was 17.5%. The percentage of encounters prescribed with a generic name and with drugs from the essential drug list was 87.5% and 65%, respectively. There were no injections prescribed. Amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin were the most common antibiotics prescribed. The duration of the treatment was mentioned in all the prescriptions. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the percentage of antibiotic usage is within the WHO standard value. The average number of drugs per prescription was slightly higher than the WHO value. Steps should be taken to improve the generic prescribing by the physicians.