Background:

  Prescriptions written in daily medical practice are associated with increasing number of prescription writing errors. Both omission errors and commission errors are encountered being caused by prescribers of different cadres. Prescribing errors are associated with occurrence of Adverse Drug Events (ADE's) which are harmful to patients.To determine the common prescription errors, the category of prescribers who commit prescription errors and the most prescribed drugs in the outpatient pharmacies in general practice at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC).

Methods: 

A prospective  cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center a referral and teaching University hospital. All prescription dispensed on the 2nd June 2017 from the two out- patient pharmacies of the Hospital were reviewed and the analysis was carried out for determining the different types of errors in writing a prescription. A form designed by the authors was used to collect data from the prescription forms.

Results:

  A total of 242 prescriptions were studied and the most common omission errors were; missing patients' weight 231(95.5%), missing patients' address 213(88.0%), missing drug dosage 159(67.1%) and commission errors were due to wrong drug strength10(2.0%). Intern doctors were leading in writing prescriptions with errors 352(25.6%), followed by residents 199(14.5%), registrar doctors 167(12.1%) and specialists 45(3.3%). The most common prescribed drugs were antibiotics 120(17.3%), antihypertensive drugs 81(11.7%) and analgesics 86(12.4%).

Conclusion: 

There were significant prescription errors at the study site, hence an intervention is needed to improve skills of prescribers in writing prescriptions. Educational intervention can substantially contriibute in lowering such errors. Initaiting  programs and short course on prescription writing before commencement of medical doctors  internship at the health facility.