Status of irrational drug use in the outpatient department of a Beijing hospital from 2018 to 2021 and evaluation of the effect of intervention measures.

ABSTRACT

To explore the status of irrational drug use in a hospital between the pre-intervention (2018 to 2019) and post-intervention (2020 to 2021) in Beijing and evaluate the effects of relevant interventions. Prescriptions were evaluated manually with reference to the management rules of the china prescription administrative policy, standard management of hospital prescription comments, standards for prescription examination in medical institutions, regulations on pharmaceutical administration in medical institutions and the administrative measures for the clinical application of antibiotics. There were 5,584 irrational outpatient electronic prescriptions, with 1,681, 1,554, 1,234 and 1,115 made annually from 2018 to 2021, respectively. Among the all irrational prescriptions, high proportions were filled by patients aged 15 to 34 years (55.62%), female patients (50.90%), patients with complications (77.42%) or chronic diseases (65.45%). The top-three types of irrational electronic prescriptions were incomplete prescription postscript (24.05%), excessive dosage (19.75%) and inappropriate medication frequency (16.42%). Among all the physicians who prescribed, the most common was physicians aged from 25 to 30 years (45.61%) and with a junior title (64.83%). Although irrational drug use interventions could significantly improve the prescribing of irrational electronic prescriptions, the situation of irrational prescribing still exists. Related interventions should be taken in future clinical work.