Results of Prescription Screening and Analysis of Outpatient by Pharmacists at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital

Abstract

Background: Screening and analyzing prescriptions after medication preparation, during medication checks before dispensing, and while dispensing can identify medication problems. However, these processes can lead to delays and may be incomplete. Therefore, we developed a system to screen prescriptions as the first step before drug preparation.

Objective: To study the results of prescription screening and analysis before drug preparation and to compare prescribing errors encountered before and after the development of the prescription screening and analysis system.

Methods: A descriptive study was conducted by collecting data on prescription errors from internal medicine outpatients in fiscal year 2023 (after the development of the prescription screening and analysis system) and comparing it with errors in fiscal year 2022 (before the development of the system).

Results: In fiscal year 2023, pharmacists screened and analyzed 20,374 prescription orders for internal medicine outpatients in the process before drug preparation, identifying prescription errors at a rate of 32.10 errors per thousand prescriptions (654 errors). This increased from fiscal year 2022, which recorded prescription errors at a rate of 9.92 errors per thousand prescriptions (240 errors). The top five prescription errors included repeated prescriptions from other physicians, outdated drug history retrieval, incomplete prescription drug lists, prescribing the wrong medication, and prescribing incorrect dosages.

Conclusion: Prescription screening and analysis for internal medicine outpatients before drug preparation enabled pharmacists to identify more prescription errors. This process ensured that patients received accurate, appropriate, and safe medications while reducing waiting times for discussions about prescribing issues with physicians.